Celestial Brace when in party

I'm playing champion, using the Celestial brace gloves that bump up my max fortitude stacks to 32

My friend is also playing Champion, and we both have Fortitude allocated

When he stands next to me, his max fortify stacks are 32, but mine lower to 20 on the buff bar. Once he moves out of range, his lower to 20 and mine increase back to 32

With the way the passive is worded, I'd expected us both to have 32 while he's near me, and his to lower to 20 once he moves out of range. I'm not sure if it's a visual bug with the buff bar, or if I genuinely am lowered to 20 fortification when he's nearby

Is this a bug or how the interaction is intended to work?

we've found the exact same thing.

me (Champion Support) and my mate (Slayer Carry)
my mate has equiped celestial bracelet, bumping him up to maximum 28 fortification. and he is able to generate himself up to 28.
but the second he stands next to me, he loses all stats.

i read the Fortitude Node this way aswell "Nearby allies count as having fortification equal to yours"

however everyone seems to be running this build in a duo setup.
how do i feel like im having a very hard time finding any posts about this, as people surely would have noticed since the big Party play doc posts build saying you should run this exact thing in a duo setup.