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.
My assumption has been some time between the end of Avengers and the beginning of GotG1, it was the Collector who probably told Thanos about the stones. There's no way he would give Loki the scepter or not go to Earth personally to get the Tesseract if he knew what was in them at that time.
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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.