Yes, that's what I noticed, too. The fire's gone.
At the end of 2017 he still seemed to be very motivated in general and very enthusiastic about SMTs. Probably with EOS being so strong now he notices that it's going to be hard to accomplish the goal. Steem has lost a lot of market cap lately, the platform is full of crap, so there must be a lot of pressure on him now.
Let's see how he's going to handle it. Setbacks can be both the killer or the beginning of something great...
Larimer....the one that got away...I hope one day he finds someone to fill those massive shoes!