Hello @Paradox Olivia
I'm glad that you were able to resolve your issue and thank you for posting your solution so that others experiencing the same thing can easily reference this! Since the Microsoft Q&A community has a policy that "The question author cannot accept their own answer. They can only accept answers by others ", I'll repost your solution in case you'd like to "Accept " the answer.
Issue: You are unable to add a verified publisher to this application.
Solution: After fixing the "Risky users" by following this guideline and waited a few hours, now my publisher is associated successfully to your app.
If you have any other questions or are still running into more issues, please let me know. Thank you again for your time and patience throughout this issue.
Please remember to "Accept Answer" if any answer/reply helped, so that others in the community facing similar issues can easily find the solution.