as of late vs of late

There seems to be some evidence that as of late (in the sense of recently) was perhaps a bit more common a century or two ago, but I think including as has never been the norm. For all that, I can't really imagine a context where OP's example...

"and as of late he has agreed to return home"

...would be considered "natural", even if we removed as. The reason it doesn't work is because of late in such contexts means during the time period stretching from the present moment to the relatively recent past. That's to say, things happening of late are normally things which either take some time to complete, or which can happen repeatedly (unlike, say, a single act of agreement).

As @Edwin succinctly notes, lately/of late apply to durative (rather than "punctive") recent actions.

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In OP's case, the natural phrasing would be...

"and he [has] recently agreed to return home"

The phrase as of late is generally used in the same sense as the words recently or lately. This diction would fit best when, perhaps, inquiring (a person) of their recent state of being. Example: "How have you been as of late?" can be used when asking how a person has been lately. Another common usage of the phrase as of late is "You've been very busy as of late!", which would also be perfectly acceptable when making a remark to a person's behavior. Your sentence, "and as of late he has agreed to return home", doesn't make sense to me because, as aforementioned, as of late is indicative of a something happening only recently. I believe that your sentence would sound far better if written as: "And, before long, he agreed to return home." or "Lately, his perspective shifted and he has finally agreed to come home." However, I do not know in which context your sentence is being used, so I cannot offer much help there. My apologies!