In Avengers: Endgame, when Hulk/Banner met the Ancient One in order to get the Time Stone, she refused, saying that if one Infinity Stone is removed from a time period, it would cause problems. I recall her saying that the Infinity Stones create the 'stream of reality'.
When Thanos destroyed the Infinity Stones, wouldn't reality have been destroyed?
The Sorcerer Supreme says that removing the Stones is what causes the flow of time (and reality) to behave oddly.
SS: The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time. Remove one of the stones, and that flow splits.
But Thanos doesn't remove them from the universe, he just reduces them to individual atoms.
Black Widow: Where are the Stones?
Thanos: Gone. Reduced to atoms.
Banner: You used them two days ago.
Thanos: I used the Stones to destroy the Stones.
So the Stones aren't 'removed' so much as 'converted into individual atoms'. Presumably if you had the wherewithal, you could collect those atoms and re-constitute them into the various Infinity Stones.
The Russos have confirmed the stones haven’t been “destroyed”, just atomized in such a way as they don’t exist in the same solid form.
"Thanos only reduced the stones to the atomic level. The stones are still present in the universe."
Endgame Directors Say That [SPOILER] Still Exist in the Present MCU Timeline
