Verification costs money to implement properly. For example a TLS certificate for a website is something like $500 a year. It costs this much because they have to actually verify who you are, take on liability if there is a mistake, deal with claims against your assertion of identity. Surely somebody as smart as Elon (Ie at least in the higher end, not necessarily a genius), would know that the $8 is just an effort to get $ without him spending to do it properly. How did he screw up so badly - hubris and desperation.