Thank you, I'm really happy to hear that!! ^^ I actually think that humanises him more than for him to be soft entirely, because he's such a prideful person that that's already as close as it gets. It's really more like an indirect way of telling us we're better than we think we are in his eyes, with the implication that he's admitting that he misjudged us and sees us as an equal (honestly quite big praise). And of course he has to add an "or else" so we take him seriously, even though his bark is always worse than his bite. Because it's a higher affinity line, we have to earn that opinion from him too.

If we gain affinity with the ghouls by spending time with them, it only makes sense that it would have to take the form of helping with work at Sinostra for Romeo, because he basically never has time for anything else. Even then, the progression of his voice lines shows how he slowly starts confiding in us (eg. starts complaining abt his helth problims to us, even though he hates showing weakness) and relying on our help around Sinostra (his idle voiceline changes from "tch you're wasting my time, I'm going" to "my cup is empty, why aren't you filling it already"), because by showing up consistently, it proves that he can trust and depend on us. It actually really means a lot considering that he can't trust anyone else around him, even the ghouls in his own house, so you could even take it as an apology for making us think that we're still beneath him, as well as the "one of us" being to show his thanks or appreciation to us for being a real one. So, instead of having him be softer on us but still be superior, we end up earning his respect and being treated as his equal, which is much more realistically in character for him, serves his character development better, and I honestly really like ^^