Somewhere in the paid relays, paid NIP-05 and a general pay to engage there is the solution.

Not sure where, but this is what Bitcoin is built for. A cost associated to your behavior in acting with others. Bad actors will get real world physical costs against them. Good actors will benefit and add value.

It's a seriously great way for brands and other web service providers to prove they control the domain, without a Twitter to say this person is NYT. It's decent way to filter because getting domains arent' so easy to create millions of, and once relays start banning NIPS-05's from spammer only domains, that's a pretty good speed bump.