while i do think royal improved goro's character and giving him a manual confidant especially helped him, there was something fitting about how his confidant worked in vanilla.
goro always avoided connections. he avoided joker too even though he was the only person he genuinely enjoyed talking to.
so it made sense that goro's bond with joker was shoddy. he did have a bond with joker but just barely because he only let himself get as close as he needed to for his mission.