Thanos’ Black Order were a surprisingly underplayed part of the Infinity War and Endgame story, but they could have been the key factor in their father’s plan, if their missing member Supergiant had been involved. The problem for Josh Brolin's Mad Titan was that his most powerful child for the fight against the Avengers plan to beat him never made it to the MCU. And her replacement almost proved how much of a threat she could have been.
In the comics, Supergiant is one of the Black Order’s most powerful members - in an already crowded field. Ultimately, when asked about her inclusion in Infinity War, the Russos admitted that she was superfluous because the cast was already so big and her powers overlapped with other characters. Supergiant's powers of telepathy and mental manipulation were seemingly too close to those of Ebony Maw, so she was left at the plotting stage.
But leaving out Supergiant served an important narrative function too because it removed Thanos’ key to understanding and stopping the Avengers’ plan to beat her “father”. Because not only is Supergiant telepathic, but she is an intellectual parasite, seeking intellect to devour and individuals to control. She would have, rather fatally, been drawn to Doctor Strange as the key intellect in the Avengers dynamic (there are others but his IQ is arguably highest), and even more importantly, his foresight of Avengers: Endgame’s ending and Tony Stark’s sacrifice would have made the one future in which the Avengers won impossible. Gifted that knowledge, Thanos would have been unbeatable.
In the final film, the role of Strange’s tormentor is given to the Maw who bests him and is forced to be killed early by Spider-Man and Iron Man. In doing so, Thanos’ key strategist was removed and the need to do so with Supergiant prior to Strange’s subsequent discovery of the future would have robbed the Black Order of their impact. Already somewhat toothless, the Black Order was Infinity War's weak link, and killing two of them off before the halfway point for the sake of the plot would have been catastrophic.
The Black Order ended up being glorified henchmen because of the removal of Ebony Maw and the total absence of Supergiant. That effectively blunted the Order’s nerve center leaving the brute strength element and Thanos’ almost dangerous blinkers for the Infinity Stones. But it was the only way to ensure that he was able to enjoy his victory at the end of Infinity War. It wasn’t merely an issue of over-crowding, Supergiant was simply too specifically powerful.
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