This “verified” nonsense is silly. Twitter knew who Assange was but refused to “verify” him. They should change what they call verified to another label like “goodie two-shoes” instead. As it is is a complete misnomer. It’s basically used to get users to behave a certain way and if they don’t conform they don’t get verified or if they are verified it gets revoked.
I agree with your main point. On a tangent: I'm not sure "goodie two-shoes" is quite the right term.
I would argue that by helping to expose illegal actions by the U.S. government, Assange was a poster child for "goodies two-shoes".