Thanos with HotU was not omniscient or omnipresent (two prereqs to be TOAA); Warlock being outside of space/time (thus undetectable by Thanos until he choose to show himself) was evidence enough of this...
If Thanos had truly been TOAA, nothing Warlock could have done would have placed him outside Thanos (and beyond his sphere of awareness)...
So again, no...Thanos with the HotU was not equal to TOAA.
And now to own your argument utterly, where was the HotU when it was found?
Within our reality...right?
Well, Classic Beyonder was stated on panel to be 1 million times stronger than everything in our reality combined...
The HotU aint impressive compared to Owen and the Beyonder...
I like retroactively placing the Hotu within 616 so we can say Beyonder was greater than it. Even though he got retconned 20 years before the Hotu became a thing.
So Beyonder can be a million times greater than it...
The only difference Thanos was stated on panel as been the Supreme Being in Marvel.
If you want to go down your usual bullshit child route, Pre Retcon MM was hurt by Wolverine, Thanos tanked attacks from every abstract in Marvel at once
Owens durability (when he realized how powerful he truly was) was as great as he willed it to be; he was able to increase it to the point to where he was able to lockup with Classic Beyonder and hold his own for a short while...
Again, given how powerful Classic Beyonder was, this feat is far, far, FAR greater than Thanos tanking attacks from the Abstracts...
And Owen absolutely demostrated more power on panel than the HotU did; his feats performed while directly engaged with the Beyonder are a testament to it...
Its no different than Marvel retroactively placing a Celestial killing spell in Odins library prior to the events in Thor 300...
Besides for the HotU to be what it alledgely was, it would have to had been around when Classic Beyonder was a million times more powerful than everything combined...right?
Gender: Male Location: somewhere within time & space
^^ I'd have to bet on Beyonder's creation of the Beyond Realm as something outshining Thanos, not his battle with Owen,
although I'm not really saying Beyonder beats the HOTI or vice versa.
Thanos didn't become "TOAA" literally, because that's impossible.
Thanos did become the most powerful thing ever, (canonically speaking) that TOAA created.
"TOAA" can't be categorized because from what we know until now, "TOAA" is not even really a character,
it's always been depicted in one form or another as the representative avatars of the actual writers/artists of stories.
So imo, inconsequential concerning hierarchies and vs forums.
The next best thing, in Marvel, imo, THOTI! (canonically speaking)
I wouldn't say this is the reason why you're right about Thanos not being literally "toaa."
Thanos knew exactly where Warlock was and what he was doing with Gamora.
Dude, either you are profoundly retarded (as Quanchi believes) or you are trolling ...
If you cant grasp the maginitude of what Owen accomplished in standing up to Classic Beyonder like that then Quanchi's stance on you may very well be accurate...
When Thanos had the H.O T U. I thought he was more powerful than the gauntlet,and he most likely was.But even though he beat the abstracts,he only beat a sliver of the Tribunal.Making him Master of one universe,not the multi-verse like the Beyonders did!Korvac did the same thing in a what if from 1982(And the Tribunal was there,so it makes it canon.)Beat a sliver of the tribunal I mean one reality!