When I was in low rank, I had naive thoughts like projects that have their Announcement topics on the forum, and publish those topics from Copper Membership accounts are more trusted.
I felt like they afford to pay fee for Copper Membership so they are more serious with their projects here. I know they can buy accounts and run their scam projects a few months (I saw many scam projects participated in the forum like that). ANN threads were published by Hero or Senior members but they are bought accounts.
Later, I realized my thought is wrong.
Unfortunately, this is one of the problems whenever you introduce ranks/titles along with a purchase. For example, most users here would probably be more inclined to trust donators, although its been proven that they aren't always trustworthy. I think it would of been better to introduce a payment to lessen restrictions just like Copper Member, but not have the title "Copper Member" associated with it. The only way users would be able to identify those that paid is because they'll be able to post images. I think that was probably a better way about it in hindsight, because despite how much campaigning there is to not trust users of particularly ranks automatically, newbies will anyway.