He wasn't blind to those changes, either of them. Had to go and mess it up, didn't he, but what was done was done. So instead, he tried to ease it back towards 'better' with no idea of how Noct had been acting and how little his attempt would mean in the face of it. He'd have a few words to say to Noct if he knew, but Noct... Noct could be tough, at best, when it came to his emotions. Somewhere between unreadable and unpredictable, and it'd gotten worse the older he got.

Everything that happened before and during his time in Tenebrae really had changed everything, specially what Ignis had told him Noct was like when he was younger.

"Guess that means we owe Prompto. First time he's had to take that kind of responsibility on on his own." There was definitely a hint of being proud about that in Gladio's voice, something he didn't show too often to the blond.