> Twitter Verification is only verifying that the account is "authentic, notable, and active".

Musk has been very clear that it will be open to anyone who pays the (increased) cost for Twitter’s Blue (which also will get other new features), and thus no longer be tier to “notable” or “active”.

> At least I have not heard about any changes other then the price change from free to $8.

Its not a price change from free to $8 for Twitter Verification. It is a discontinuation of Twitter Verification as a separate thing, but moving the (revised) process and resulting checkmark to be an open-to-anyone-who-pays component of Blue, which increases in cost to $8/mo (currently $4.99/mo).

Public figures still have separate labels, I'm sure you'll have to have a credit card that matches your name on file (even if you choose to publicly remain anonymous). This is a much faster way to verify someone's identity than having people submit a photo ID and articles about them or written by them... Which was the previous requirement.

I do wish that public figures would have a different badge color or a fully filled in badge with other verified users having only a bordered badge etc. Frankly we don't really know what it will look like.