The entire point of the blue checkmark was "this account with a high-profile person's/company's name is actually who they say they are".
Turning it into "everyone gets a checkmark that wants one" has destroyed the value of the checkmark. It is, at best, a suckers badge at this point.
As a result, viewing the replies of any moderately progressive tweeter yields a heap of blue-check abuse as the first glance.
So basically, the twitter stereotype of "Hello my name is firstname bunchanumbes and I have some really shitty opinions" is now bluecheck-boosted.
But I agree with you -- it's the belief they'll get preferential positioning that crypto grifters, SEO lunatics, and marketing slimeballs are banking on.
Personas of people who would buy Blue at this point fall into a few buckets:
• The aforementioned group of users hoping for preferential positioning
• People who simply want to show support for Elon/Twitter by paying
• People who are desperate for a blue check, to feel important
• People who find value in the features of Twitter Blue (which, if we're honest, are meager)
Lots of overlap in these -- e.g., I think people who are desperate for a blue check are claiming to be subscribed because of the Twitter Blue features -- a modern take on "I read Playboy for the articles."
It has been kind of crazy to see people be mad that their “for you” feed was filled with promoted “blue checks” when no such change had been done yet.
$8/mo is the price range that attracts scammers and hustlers that care about showing up in the first 5 replies of a major tweet so they can spam their product to a large audience.
Don't forget about the trolls!