It has nothing to do with “caring” or “not caring”, you’re being way too simplistic and over-analyzing basic coach-speak.
Coaches at all levels always want their practices to be ‘more physical’, who wouldn’t? It’s a typical thing to boast on the first day of camp, you want to set a tone. Unfortunately, the reality is that camp is a four week grind, and it’s impossible to go hard and be physical everyday. His number one job as HC, even more than imposing his tone/style/physicality, is getting players to opening night as healthy as possible.
He didn’t “not care” in previous seasons, he probably just backed off physicality in practice (to take care of injured/hurt players, lack of team depth, etc.) more than he’s comfortable with. That’s just the modern players now, you can’t be physical in practice everyday, you have to manage them. Gus knows that, you’re just reacting to a Day 1 sound bite.