Those automated massive upvotes on intro posts in 2016/2017 brought a wave of scammers.
There was an Indonesian guy who walked around his village and school to take photos of different people to hold a piece of paper with Steemit "verification" (likely paid them a few dollars or something, and who had no clue what they were being asked for and what Steemit is), so he could later cash out for $50-100 upvotes per intro.
Well we can choose to require more than that. People should not expect rewards for little effort. Of course it's not always easy to prove it's unique people. You won't get thousands now anyway.
This is the reason I have never considered such verifications as legitimate and always ask for legitimate, well-established social media account that shows a history of a lifestyle of real person (which 99.99% of people under the age of 60 have regardless of country they are from).