xds: address merge conflict gotcha and missed review comment from previous PRs

[easwars]

RELEASE NOTES: none

[codecov]

Codecov Report

All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests ✅

Project coverage is 81.81%. Comparing base (5e6f4b9) to head (bf28777).
Report is 3 commits behind head on master.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master    #7705      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   81.88%   81.81%   -0.07%     
==========================================
  Files         361      361              
  Lines       27827    27827              
==========================================
- Hits        22786    22767      -19     
- Misses       3849     3859      +10     
- Partials     1192     1201       +9     

see 25 files with indirect coverage changes

[arvindbr8]

Seems like build broke from this commit: #7696

[arvindbr8]

Changes look good to me, but still concerned by our CI did not catch this merge conflict gotcha before merge.

Merging to get green builds