My assumption is that the reality stone only changes the states of matter or the composition of the environment. That's why the Dark Elves wanted to return to the dark ages, with the Aether, because it can change the conditions of the environment. The Reality Stone isn't a wish fulfilling stone, though. It can't materialize an actual infinity stone and its powers, it just changes the states of matter.
Ultimately, the full explanation is that the plot requires Thanos to get all six. And in a way I can understand that, given all six give him untapped control over the entire universe. With the Power Stone the Snap can destroy the matter of people, the Space Stone can allow the Snap to have a vast reach across the entire universe, the Reality Stone converts much of the destroyed matter into nothingness, the Soul Stone allows the Snap to discriminate living matter from non-living matter (affecting living beings through their soul, I suppose), the Time Stone maybe affects how fast or how irreversible the disintegration occurs (I'm spitballing this one lol), and the Mind Stone, I don't know.
Point being he needed all six ones to make the Snap work at a universal scale. Without all of them combined, he couldn't achieve what he did. Having only a few would limit his power scope.