Its not that out of character. Steve said he never knew for sure. To tell something like that out of speculation would just cause undue hardship.

"Hey i have no actual evidence, but just my thoughts: i think my best friend killed your family"

That is just setting up uneccessary grief.

Ok, ONE reply - it’s very optimistic to say that without the population restored the ecosystem would recover from humanity. Within a handful of generations population levels would be right back where it is now, human behaviour would more than likely go unchanged and we’d be right back where we were.

Sure, but it did clear the stage to make a more sustainable future

Thanos was most definitely in the wrong on that one. He was lucky most species didn't blow themselves up and go extinct.

Not to mention 50 or so years later he'd be right back where he started.

Yes, wasnt the most practical solution, but again, once everyone was gone it was still an opportunity to start a more sustainable future.

The issue would be pushed for by some people, sure.

Unless all people in power/profiting from the current structure were snapped then I highly doubt anything meaningful would change long term.

This is also not accounting for any ecological disasters resulting from that snap (either directly, like species on the brink going extinct, or indirectly like an oil tanker suddenly without a pilot running aground).

True, but your assumption is that "people wouldnt change" is as pessimistic as mine is optamistic.

Realistically, both possibilities are as likely as the other. While you presume people wouldnt change, i believe they would. We could argue about that all day and neither would be right or wrong because both are equally possible.

Either way, the snap cleared out the population, which would provide a stage for effectively changing the malthusian crisis and the climate crisis. It would have been smarter to leave it be and instead build a better future.

True that we can’t prove whether the pessimistic or optimistic outcome would happen, but when has humanity as a whole put the collective/long term good ahead of short term profits/maintaining the status quo?

I mean... Literally this year scientists around the world mobilized and created a vaccine for a global pandemic in record time, and a system was put in place to ensure those vaccines would be distributed relatively evenly throughout the world. Pretty easy example of a time the world mobilized for the greater good of long term global health

Mobilised =\= changed.

People would absolutely put the issue of scaling back consumption on the back burner when it’s not a pressing issue. Give a couple of generations and boomers mark 2 will be in power.