Even if you agree with him that population control is needed, I don't see how you wouldn't criticize him harshly on his method both on the technical grounds of being ineffective and on various moral grounds. His comic-book motivation of trying to impress a certain lady is much more relateable for the particular action he took.
I saw a fan theory suggested on Reddit that it would make more sense if population control was also a means to an end for Thanos, and that Thanos's ultimate reason for doing what he does was to stave off the arrival of Galactus.
Still makes no sense -- universal replacement rate is probably > 2, almost certainly now with so many deaths + resources freed up, the overall population will be back to its pre-snap number in a few solar years tops (ed: ok maybe longer, on earth it took ~200 years for Europeans to recover from the plague, but that's just earth and just Europeans). Would have been better to target fertility rates, or kill more females than males and more asexually reproducing sentients than non.
Or you know....if we're arguing about potential solutions to unhappiness in the universe when the infinity gauntlet literally allows the wearer to do anything they desire, then why not just give everyone limitless resources, or just make everyone permanently happy, or eliminate greed or fear or violence.
I still like the idea of wiping half of life in the entire universe though, it works well from the narrative perspective.
