Huffmann is definitely coying his idol Elon with the verified account thingy… which he can then use to pressure advertisers into paying more, see https://www.engadget.com/x-tells-advertisers-to-spend-1000-per-month-or-risk-losing-verification-status-201528621.html?guccounter=1
If Reddit becomes where you get the official brand story instead of the truth from users, it might as well be Facebook.