Thread:Elledy92/@comment-26838855-20190425183005/@comment-26838855-20190426194415

I'm not saying Steve chose not to change the timeline, I'm saying that by the definition of the rules that have been laid out, Steve just has to have always lived in this timeline. Because the Time Heists involved removing stones, they caused a branch. This didn't, and that could be the reason that the timeline accommodated it, it was always this way. Steve got lucky, if you like, that the paradox exists allowing him to have done it without changing time.

That diagram relies on him jumping back to 2023, which he did not do. He didn't appear via the machine.

Think about it: {Col-begin} {Col-2} {Col-2} {Col-end}
 * c. 1950 - Peggy lives her life without Steve.
 * 2023 - Steve is sent and ends up in an alternative timeline, thus disappearing forever from this timeline.
 * c. 1950 - Steve arrives, creating a new timeline.
 * 2023 - Steve is an old man, but Bucky, Sam, and Hulk are not there so he can't visit the point where he left, that's in the other timeline.

This is the rules laid out by the test run scene. It doesn't make sense for Steve to be in an alternate timeline and her still be around in 2023 of the main timeline.