I remember an old song (ancient!) called "Little Things Mean a Lot". They do. Not always, but a lot of the time. Most T's are fairly limited in what they say in emails, and some refuse to send/reply unless it's purely business - a scheduling issue. So if a T wanted to express what you mentioned, they might do it subtlely and hope you get it. My T was once called as an expert witness in a court case involving a T who he knew. He said it was a huge, huge mess. He had to read all the emails, they were read in court, etc. So he never shows any kind of warmth in his emails because that's the type of thing that could be misinterpreted in a legal action.

Why not just enjoy the feeling that he/she was trying to communicate to you what you said? It's logical, and it was a nice thing to do if that was the case.