It's no more than any client only showing the information it wants to; anyone can verify anyone else, without permission from the company. Any client can surface this information in any way they'd like, without permission from the company.
Regardless of the intent or future this is an incredibly neat rhetorical trick that Bluesky's designers have pulled. Any semi-motivated contrarian can make the required arguments for either concern. It even happens to be true!
Meanwhile every mastodon discussion required (requires?) someone who deeply understands the system to spend "10 comments deep" energy just to arrive at a much less amenable position.
