Yeah, it's definitely a status symbol as it is now. But my question remains the same. Why treat it like a status symbol? I don't see a reason why this should

Yeah, it's definitely a status symbol as it is now. But my question remains the same. Why treat it like a status symbol? I don't see a reason why this should be something fancy that only an elite few should have. Why not have a different system for marking elite users which is based on some sort of merit (or actual real world worth) rather than just a vague sense of name recognition? Just seems like they're misusing the concept, and that a system which does away with the 'prestige' aspect of verification would do equally well on a user level.