Agreed. I also think he is generally more confident on where he and band are at this point.
There was a bit of insecurity with THINFS on how the audience is going to accept the 'new band' without Richie. And there were also struggles with his voice.

I think he re-invented himself. And one thing you can notice is his singing technique that's changed now. He mentioned more than once in his recent interviews that he is taking vocal classes every day.
It's never coming back to where it was, but he is finding his comfort level again.