All of those other movies directly connected to the ongoing events of the MCU. Guardians 1 did not in any way.

First Thor has Coulson coming straight from Iron Man 2, along with SHIELD being involved throughout. Cap had the present day scenes with Nick Fury and finding the shield in the ice. Iron Man was simply the beginning, and SHIELD was in it throughout.

What I was saying before is nothing outside of that one Thanos scene had anything to do with any other event in the MCU at the time. No direct link to the other movies, and it wasn't until Infinity War that Thanos becomes a physical villain. Him being behind the scenes isn't the kind of link I was talking about.