You can't claim it's 99% audience approved, then say "[only the American] audience [who purchased tickets via Fandango]". If you include the full audience, it has a 28% approval with 5000+ ratings, like the replier indicated.
Your claim is "I would have though[t] verified audience was the more reliable indicator."
That claim is incorrect because it takes in to account only one very small segment of the people who saw the movie (only US, Fandango-based, in-theater viewings are counted). That is not indicative of the wider audience feedback.
You also point out the discrepancy between professional reviewers and audience score ("The audience says: 99% Popcornmeter - 500+ Verified Ratings -The critics say: 10% Tomatometer - 20 Reviews - be careful who you listen to") as a reason for Rotten Tomatoes being untrustworthy, but the Tomatometer and the Popcorn Meter (all audience, not just verified) are close together (10% vs 28%).
Just curious, do you believe this movie to be good? Have you seen it? Or is this just a kneejerk reaction to defend an awful movie where more than 50% of the budget went directly the person the documentary is about?
The so called „verification“ counts only US users who purchased tickets through the US Fandango app and nobody else, no?