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Going completely off​ the Marvel Cinematic Universe Thanos motivation here, which is different, canonically, from that of comic book Thanos; the latter sought out the death of multiple trillions of beings as a "token of love" of sorts to Mistress Death, while the former had the arguably more logic-based reason of culling the populace to ensure proper amounts of resources for those who survived.

However, if this was the case... why did he not just use the Gauntlet to double, or even triple the various resources in the cosmos to better suit the population?

We have seen that the Space and Power Stones can reduce the time something needs to multiply, or increase the potency of both organic and inorganic items, respectively. The Reality Stone could essentially have been used to fix the problem outright; considering that it allows the user to basically bend reality to fulfill their wishes, even if the wish is "in direct contradiction with scientific laws, and do things that would normally be impossible," that Stone alone could have taken dead matter throughout the universe and turned it into food, water, or any other resources any planet needed.

Need for conflict aside, why was this never addressed in the story?

Furthermore, if Thanos' ultimate goal was harmony throughout the universe, and he is the overall genius, why didn't this occur to him when he had all the Stones? Was this at all touched upon in the movies, and thus set as a "limitation" of the Stones in some way?

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    You remember they called him the Mad Titan?
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Mar 23, 2020 at 18:07
  • why was this never addressed in the story? Because they preferred to gloss over stuff knowing people will still buy a movie with giant plot holes?
    – Mithoron
    Mar 23, 2020 at 18:15
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    @mithoron A character not acting in the way you think he should have acted is not a plot hole.
    – tbrookside
    Mar 23, 2020 at 18:19
  • @tbrookside Seems you're not getting something here. He wants to wipe out half of universe because he wanted the same in books. There it was a way to impress Death. Here they change his motivation. They didn't bother with explanations why should this still make sense. Perhaps because any explanations wouldn't really work so better to make it mysterious.
    – Mithoron
    Mar 23, 2020 at 18:31
  • @Mithoron - Sure. That's the out-of-universe reason, but OP was looking for an in-universe reason
    – Valorum
    Mar 23, 2020 at 18:33

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Doubling the resources available to life in the Universe wouldn't do more than push the problem back a few million years. Thanos doesn't just want life in the universe to use fewer resources, but also to actively work to stay in balance with the universe, managing their own population control and removing the need for him to do so on their behalf.

Thanos claims that Gamora's people are thankful and recognise that decimating their population was the right thing to do, even if they won't openly admit it.

The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies.

And he addresses your point at the end of Endgame. If people don't recognise why he did what he did, they'll just revert to their old ways.

THANOS (CONT'D)
I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you’ve shown me that’s impossible.

(beat)

Life clings to the past with bloody fingernails. As long as there are those who remember what was, there will be those unable to accept what can be. They will resist.

If he uses the stones to create an abundant universe (assuming such as thing is even possible) life would just spread even faster than before because they won't have learned a lesson. Giving them more stuff might even hasten the end of the universe.

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