Hello, I think you are wrong and I want to explain why.
So he is infact not "just a happy-go-lucky character" because while yes he is quite cheery and I would not say that he just is that way, he forces himself to be that way. Infact at least until after he and Pawbert got the Lynxley journal he was very stressed. Snakes often shed more and get shedding problems when they are stressed and Gary was shedding almost the whole time up until the moment that he and Pawbert got the Lynxley journal. (the fact that his skin was not in one piece is not because of stress but instead because the humidity in Zootopia is not the right one for him to shed)
And while he was at the Zootenial you were very clearly able to see that. On the stage he looks like a deer in headlights, he is clearly aware that he is likely going to fail. In the kitchen he still has that expression of "oh fuck I am going to fail and my family will never be able to come home". (also there is an animation error, he is missing a tooth) Then he accidentally fangs chief bogo and Judy tries to pull the tooth out of Chief Bogos head to which he looks suprised and then frantically tells her that he can be saved via anti-venom. The point is because Judy helped him instead of immeadiately accusing him (and also because she was willing to listen to him explain himself earlier) he realizes he can trust Judy. Then after that when he literally gets thrown out of a window he is still fixated on the journal, in his mind this is the only chance to get the journal because now that the Lynxleys know there is a snake that wants the journal they will obviously get even more security for the journal. just look at how defeated he looks after he is outside the manor, and how he looks back at the manor even as Pawbert and him are already driving off.
The next day at marsh market when he already has the journal and is running from Judy and Nick he has an expression that says "I can not fail again. This is my last chance." aka every try he assumes that this is his last chance. So he very much is at least in the first half of the movie carrying the weight of the world on his non-existent shoulders.
Then after Pawbert knocked out a cop Gary says "I told you she's helping" This means that Pawbert and Gary had a conversation about the fact that Judy and Nick have the journal and Gary told Pawbert that they can trust Judy, however either Pawbert or Gary himself still had doubt about if they can actually trust Judy or if Gary is just too trusting. Otherwise Gary would probably not had the need to say this. Regardless Garys trust in Judy while yes it is there is still not very strong.
Only like 10 seconds later Pawbert jumps out the window to catch judy, the thing is Gary wrapped around Pawbert after he jumped which means both that Gary and Pawbert bonded enough that Gary was able to predict that Pawbert was going to jump (his reaction time was literally 0.10 miliseconds) and also that Pawbert trusted Gary enough to jump out of a building and trusting him to catch him but that doesn't matter rn.
Later on the motorcycle Judy has a bandaid that looks like it would be made for children. Gary actively chose to bring cute bandaids with him in case he bit someone. He chooses to be cheery and cute. Now why could he choose to be this way? It's simple because of steriotypes, snakes are seen as evil, manipulative and two-faced. Gary (in his mind) needs to be the opposite of this. He is choosing to be like this because he represents all snakes. He is acting this way because otherwise he thinks he will be percived as a threat by judy.
After Judy asks after Nick Gary looks at her like he feels sorry for her but more importantly Gary can relate to Judy since he also has a Partner without whom he would feel lost.
This isn't actually relevant but I still wanted to mention it: When Pawbert tells Gary to get into the sidecart Gary looks uncomftable, it probably reminds him of the time that he spend in that crate being shipped to Zootopia.
Also once again about Garys reaction time, to turn off the Cattoy purple ball thingy he took about 1 second so either he really liked seeing Pawbert getting with all his cat stuff or he has a reaction time of about 1 second.
Also you probably already knew this but Gary signed his anonymous letter.
Anyway back to the main topic Gary and Pawbert disscuss how Gary got to Zootopia and Gary says "Seven days in a crate. But if I fix things for my family, it'll be worth it." aka if he doesn't fix things for his family it would not be worth it, which one one hand would be understandable it would suck really bad to fail at something like this but on the other hand even if Gary failed it would still get a few mammals to ask themselves how could Zootopia be a city where all animals are welcome but reptiles are not? Which might move things a bit forward. If Gary truely were optimistic he would have probably thought of something like that.
After Judy found out about the weatherwalls and they all made the plan with going to the dessert wall, Gary shouts "WE SHALL SUCCEED" and then hugs Pawbert and Judy. This is worth mentioning because Gary has not actively touched judy (except for maybe in the cart but that doesn't count because it wasn't an active choice) until now, which means that Gary trusts Judy enough to hug her without worrying about her accusing him of trying to kill her bc yk snakes wrapping their coils around you is ussually seen as killing behavior.
Later when they are on the way to the dessert wall Judy is stressing about the plan to which Gary replies "We shall succeed, Judy Hopps." This is kind of a huge deal considering that he was the one stress shedding about the plans at the begin of the movie. I think he is more sure of himself and the fact that everything will work out fine because he now has two animals he trusts helping him.
While running from the police again Gary doesn't look quite as desperate because while yes he is scared he trusts Pawbert and Judy, and he actually believes that they shall succeed.
Then in the power controll room he has a look on his face that says "We actually did it, I can't believe it."
Immeadiately afterthis of course there is the scene where Pawbert betrays the two of them. But what is interesting to see is Gary doesn't attack like he later does in a silly way but he instead jumps at Pawbert and tries to bite him, in other words Gary was ready to play into a snake steriotype if it meant protecting Judy. Like you can very clearly see that he doesn't want to do this but he feels that he has too. Also he was ready to potentially kill Pawbert because while of course Gary can use the anti-venom pen for both Judy and Pawbert the anti-venom works very fast and who's to say that Pawbert would not attack them again and in the case that Pawbert attacks them again Gary could not just bite him again because well the anti-venom is already in Pawberts body.
And while yes Gary does infact not say outloud "I feel so betrayed by the person I thought I could trust most in this city" literally look at his face and tell me that he doesn't feel betrayed and sad, just because he doesn't tell anyone doesn't mean that it is not there.
Uhhmm I seem to have reached the limit on images so I will make another post later where I put the other images that I want to add and just number them I guess
While Judy calls out for Nick, Gary once again says "We shall succeed, Judy Hopps." and while he himself does'nt sound like he believes this. What else can he do. His only remaining friend in the city is about to die and he too is about to die but he has thought he was going to fail several times before so now he desperately has to cling onto the hope. Because he was already this close to succeeding, if he dies now all his work will not have been worth it, infact he might have even made the situation worse for snakes.
Then while Nick and Judy reunite Gary says he is going to look for their friend. He does this for the obvious reason that the two of them probably need some privacy but also this is the kind of partnership he thought he and Pawbert had so it probably does hurt him a bit to see the both of them together.
On the snowmobile after Judy and Nick said their thing Gary and Nibbles say "And Gary and Nibbles" as if they were a team for a long while generally Gary also seems more happy again after he came back with Nibbles so to put it short Nibbles is a Pawbert replacement for Gary.
During the fight with Pawbert Gary now again only uses silly ways to beat Pawbert up, once again to not play into snake steriotypes. Also after the fight when Pawbert has his little monologue that basically just goes "I support lynx supremacy" Gary looks hurt like he trusted this person and now it turns out he is like this.
Then Gary finally arrives at the old De'Snake home and thinks he has finally succeeded but suddendly Pawbert burns down the desk. Luckly Gary already holds the patent so it is not harmed but the point here is that Gary did not like the othertimes when his plans didn't work act impulsively but instead just stood there watching Pawbert. Gary did not panic or feel like he would fail.
So in conclusion Garys character developement while not obvious and probably also not finished yet is existent, he went from worrying to the point of stress shedding to being more confident in his plans, and another developement Gary has is him building trust with Judy.
Anyway if anything in here doesn't make sense then feel free to ask me for clarification and if it still doesn't make sense then blame the heatwave that is currently in my area because this is only what I can do while my brain isn't quite braining right, just imagine how long this text would be if I were able to use 100% of my brain power XD
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