Re: Tidal forces?
The distribution of the gradient does change.
See below. Consider a black hole of 3 sun masses, and a red giant of 3 sun masses. The Roche Limit, of each would be different (AFAIK, I've not googled the math to check it, sorry, I'm a layman! :P ).
PS, it seems that "R" radius of the larger body (Sun in our case) is influential in the variable of the Roche Limit. :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit
I guess this is because each position in the volume of the star/planet will also have a gravitational gradient caused by the surrounding material (if it's the size of a planet, it's a lot of rock! and you can be gravitationally pulled in any direction the material is, just less on your side with less material ). Imagine falling through a planet or star, you would feel gravity pulling in both directions as you pass the center, but still get some gravity on both directions until you reach a surface where all the gravity would then be in one direction (as the whole star/planet would be on one side of you).
So the gradient in gravity will effect how strong a "slope" and difference is exerted on the second/smaller body.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
