I think he talks about it in the context of Twitter? Don’t really need it on nostr. If you’re a high profile person you’ll have some other place where you already have a following or a domain, and they should be enough to verify you. We don’t need payments to stop spam for all, just people who wish to opt into paid relays only.
I don't see what the Orange Check that nostr:npub15dqlghlewk84wz3pkqqvzl2w2w36f97g89ljds8x6c094nlu02vqjllm5m and nostr:npub1jt97tpsul3fp8hvf7zn0vzzysmu9umcrel4hpgflg4vnsytyxwuqt8la9y talk about really changes.
Why is signing your data not enough to proof it was really you? I see the case for a proof on the BTC timechain for timestamping some of your publications, but why is that needed for your npub itself too?
Discussion
He also often talks about it in the dystopic scenario where you cannot proof that, for example, a software update really came from the software provider and an infiltrated AI auto-updates everyone into oblivion: https://youtu.be/OGmdOIXzB64?si=cCqsf6O5L76w0iu6&t=6260
But a multisig hardware nostr-signing device would already be enough to prevent that. Why does he insist on a transaction on the base layer?