There's a MAJOR difference between us the reader and an actual character spotting a difference of appearance on a character.
- Has Luffy ever said anything about Kaido's drunken mode ? No.
- Has Zoro said something about Kaku? Yes he did.
I'm really here looking at it objectively. 2 chapters before Kaku fought Zoro Lucci's awakened was confirmed in an info box. The main change of his body was present on Kaku 2 chapters later. Why was Kaku's Awakening not confirmed with an info box ? Because maybe Oda doesn't think he needs to confirm something that obvious?
Whereas Kaido the main villain of the last major arc was talking about Awakening but never was confirmed to have one. How are we supposed to know Kaido used Awakening when we've never seen one before that?
Meaning IF Kaido used Awakening Oda 100% had to confirm to us that he did because there's no example before in that arc of a character using it so that we can detect the obvious without being in need to confirm it.
You just don't really want to accept that Kaido doesn't have Awakening.