I have been steady researching this and I have stumbbled upon what lloks like an unfinshed doc for the Developer Verification Program

Key notes

  • still no rollout schedule
  • Fee can be found in FAQ. Says it will be $25
  • That you will have to provide a state-issued ID even for the now free “Limited Distribution” that has a 20 device maximum
  • In the FAQ it shows that this is covering all devices Android 7.0 and up and admits that the Advanced Flow in Google Play Services.
  • still does not address how they are justifying this at all

They have stolen a free product and are now activity locking out the people who built it.

ASOP does not belong to them it belongs to us. Time to get it back I think.