I loved Thor's arc in IW and EG. Thanks to Strange, we know that in the millions of variations of how it could have gone down, Thor NEVER goes for the head. Ergo the egoistic need to look his defeated enemy in the eye and gloat is a core flaw in Thor's character that absolutely justifies his shame spiral in EG.

I think the way you attacked the person instead of what you claim to be incorrect information is unkind and not productive. The author does not appear to be pretending (lying) to me. However, I do believe you are incorrect because the Valar rank higher and are more powerful than Maiar. Further, Melkor was the strongest of the Valar so it's a very easy to follow logic that Melkor was more powerful than Mairon.