Fair point, it's hard to say what the reality is right now without testing it directly the moment you ask the question. The haphazard management and rapid changes (and rollbacks) means even help docs can be out of date.
It is that way, especially so since being able to pay for the check. That way you don't change your name to Ford (bluecheck) as people did in the beginning of the system.
According to the verification policy linked by the The Intercept article linked by the Ars Technica article, it is