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A very important distinction between Post-IW Thanos and 2014-Thanos was yes, this Thanos wasn't burdened with sacrifices needed to win (Infinity War was a movie about who could and couldn't make hard choices). Thano 2014, I felt, was affected by seeing his future self broken and killed than he gave off.
At the final battle he revealed that for the first time it was personal, now that he knows that the unruly wretches on Earth would actually avenge the taken and more or less win eventually. The combination of not taking the Avengers seriously enough and seeing his own death led to a shift that we almost didn't catch.
He made peace with planning to lie.
Multiple times between these two movies it was made very clear that Thanos does not lie. He didn't raise his daughters to do so, and he honored every deal we see him do in his appearences - up to sparing Stark's life when given the Time Stone, an act of honesty that ultimately cost him his entire campaign.
So what does 2014 Thanos do? He plans on killing everything ever, an indictment on his own original motivations, and openly ignores that the new universe would be built on a lie. This regresses more into a more traditional villain, of course, and this more unhinged Thanos is presented throughout the final battle. More prone to impatience, rash decisions, and mistakes.
Under no circumstance would a calculated, "I'll do it myself" Thanos do something as risky as take on the Avengers knowing they have the Stones. Before he grew stronger as he collected them, having a head start with the Power Stone. Now he just has a fancy sword, and no actual experience telling him that Dr Strange by himself was able to hang when he had four stones. Stark made him bleed when he had four stones. Wanda held him back one handed when he had FIVE stones. And Thor nearly killed him AFTER he tried a full Infinity blast. As powerful as he was, the Avengers are dangerous when they go full throttle. Something a methodical Thanos would keep in mind, but not an impatient Thanos. Not one who abandoned reason.
What I love about his death was his deafening silence. It's essentially playing back his opening speech in IW. But what I get from it was he couldn't meet the standard he saw in his future self. It's like seeing yourself in five years with a great job and hot wife, so you just overconfidently go for that job and the girl who doesn't even know you yet... only to screw it all up. You're not the guy to be, not yet. And now not ever.
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