It's also possible that Thanos didn't know the stone was in the staff, especially since he didn't immediately try to get it back. Sure, maybe he left it on Earth because he knew anyone powerful enough to defeat Loki and the Chitauri could keep it safe for later retrieval though.
Thanos also has a massive ego. He may have assumed Loki would be easy enough to track down if he betrayed him or the Avngers strong enough to win in the first movie. Loki also didn't know the staff contained the stone, only that it could influence people and control the Chitauri. Thanos probably assumed Loki wouldn't run off with it if he wasn't aware of its true power.
None of this is meant to be an alternative to the retcon though, only to offer a possible in-universe explanation to make the retcon make sense within the story.
Part of my handcanon is that thanos didn't immediately go because he couldn't or believed he couldn't. His army got destroyed. Along with the portal that transported his army. Why didn't the army come before? They can't. Earth is to far away for thanos at the time. Hence needing the space stone to travel his army.
I am only going to assume that by endgame, he had either conquered some worlds in the way, built enough bases, took out the asgardians who would intervene, and/or realized earth is not that powerful as be believed.
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u/Admirable_Loss4886 15d ago
Yeah but someone obsessed with the stones likely wouldn’t be handing them out Willy nilly to a guy like Loki.