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
Reddit had a nice balance between being anonymous, but also making you care about your reputation enough to not turn completely into 4chan