The people who knew you when you were struggling are the best judges of whether success changed you.

Only people with a record from before can measure a change. Anybody who met you after things went well has nothing to compare against, while friends from the hard years hold a baseline and will spot the small shifts first: what you talk about, who you interrupt, whether you still ask questions. That makes them inconvenient and valuable at the same time. New people flatter partly because they have no data.

So keep a few of them close on purpose rather than out of sentiment. Stay in the group chat, go to the ordinary things, and let them speak to you the way they always did.