“So, I’ve known about that scene for two years.[…] My whole journey through making Thor: Ragnarok — I knew this was coming. By the end of Thor: Ragnarok, Loki has been accepted as Thor’s brother again. When I came to shoot the scene in Infinity War, I think it’s very powerful he calls himself an Odinson, and that closes the whole journey of Loki and what he can do. It [Loki’s death] set the stakes up emotionally. It takes the stakes up dramatically.”
— Tom Hiddleston
“that closes the whole journey of Loki and what he can do”
Only because Marvel artificially made that the close: made the telos of Loki’s existence consist in dissolving his being into Thor’s; made him a function of Thor, a cog or a symbol in Thor’s journey rather than a person in his own right. He was a person up through TDW. Hiddleston gave him a depth and roundness few of the heroes possess. Marvel decided that wasn’t what they wanted from Loki.
Interviews like this really make it sound like his death in IW was final.
Loki is the Philosopher King 