Thor: Love & Thunder: 10 Questions It Leaves Unanswered
9. Why Hasn't Thor Loaned Out His Powers Before?
In the third act, Thor makes the drastic decision to effectively loan a portion of his godly abilities out to the various Asgardian children kidnapped by Gorr.
Even ignoring the fact that this apparently makes these terrified children instantly badass warriors, one has to consider why Thor's never thought to harness this power before.
It sure would've been useful during countless prior MCU conflicts, not least while trying to protect Jane Foster and her pals from various threats in the first two Thor films.
Now the real answer here is "because movie," that Taika Waititi simply wanted to give Thor this ability and didn't much care about what he could or couldn't do in the past.
If you want to fudge a canonical answer, perhaps this is a power that Thor only developed recently, after overcoming his "Dad Bod" and getting in a better place mentally?
Needless to say the ability has rather opened up Pandora's box, because any time Thor's surrounded by an imperiled human or weaker superhero, fans are going to ask why he doesn't just give them an Asgardian buff until they're safe.