Our valued friendship

The show: The Big Bang Theory
The episode: "The Bozeman Reaction," first aired on CBS a couple of days ago.
What happened: I can pretty much repeat what Bill said in a post yesterday: "Thieves break into the apartment where Sheldon and Leonard live and steal computers, external hard drives, some video game consoles and several video games. Predictably, Sheldon and Leonard get a ridiculously elaborate security system installed in their apartment." After "getting trapped and electrocuted by the security system he had [Howard] Wolowitz install," Sheldon gets the "idea to move to Bozeman, Montana," where his bags are stolen immediately upon arrival, quickly convincing him to return to Pasadena.
What has me wondering: After deciding on Bozeman, Montana as his new home, Sheldon records a farewell video message for his four friends, or, to be exact, three friends and one acquaintance. Upon returning, his friends are actually happy to see him, and all jokes about wanting Sheldon gone or killed are duly forgotten. Howard is the first to greet Sheldon, prompting Sheldon to tactlessly remark that "the acquaintance" was the first to greet him.
This made me laugh, as that line sounds like vintage Sheldon. But now it gets me to wondering if Sheldon forgot how differently he valued his friends in the episode "The Friendship Algorithm." In that episode, eager to have Barry Kripke as a friend so he can have more time on a supercomputer, Sheldon decided that having five friends would be too much for him, so he decided to 'defriend' Raj. He carefully explained his decision, and even though Howard does not have a PhD, his "cologne is an assault on the senses," and he's "not available for video games during the Jewish high holidays," Sheldon decides to keep Howard as a friend.
At some point between "The Friendship Algorithm" and this episode, Howard was demoted from "friend" to "acquaintance" while Raj was promoted from expendable friend to valued friend. Apparently Penny was also promoted in Sheldon's estimation. I do remember I spent a whole blog post on Monday reminding nitpickers that humans often behave illogically. But that caveat almost seems to not apply to Sheldon. Could Sheldon's friendship revaluation have taken place as he lay twitching on the floor on account of Howard's security system?