OP again: THE HANDHOLDING. These poor boys. And Grindelwald casually thinking about Newt being "gone", keeping Credence from anything that might make him less reliant on Grindelwald... like you said, the only one doing well here is Grindelwald.

He's definitely playing with fire helping Credence to master the obscurus, though. And it seems especially risky for him to teach Credence to use the obscurus by turning Credence's fear into anger.