By a vast margin. Replies are apparently unusable as a thing for communication because if you have a checkmark the algorithm ignores any other consideration.
I don't know what it was called, but the purchasable blue check marks thing built off of an already existing service. It might have had a different name, I don't remember.
I recall reading (forgot where) that someone with the Blue Check-mark has more "weight" when retweeting and responding to tweets. And that the Blue Checks can easily bury anyone without a Blue Check in Twitters algorithm. This was done intentionally by Elon to pressure people into paying.
It's why artists like Adam Ellis blocks anyone with the Blue Check; right-wingers hate him, and they can really fuck up his reach, so he just blocks anyone with the Blue Check-mark who replies/re-tweets his work so they can't even interact with his tweets. And he isn't the only artist that does this.