Quick answer
Integrity with empty pockets beats a crooked mouth with full ones. The verse prices character above circumstance and says so as a straight comparison.
Read both lines
The comparison is doing the work, because a "better than" saying always concedes that the other option has something going for it. Nobody needs to be told poverty is hard. What the verse claims is that the trade is still a bad one, and the second line explains why by naming what the alternative actually costs: a man whose lips are twisted has to keep them that way. The book will run this comparison again in nearly the same words at 28:6. Notice what the verse does not say. It does not promise the poor man will stop being poor, and the honesty of that omission is part of why the sentence can be trusted.
Related: Proverbs 28:6 · Proverbs 19:22 · Proverbs 16:8
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.