I wouldn't doubt that with all the success the MCU movies have had, the actor's egos have become enormous. But with that comes demands for higher paychecks, which the studies hate even more than big egos.
But in all fairness, I think part of the reason they remove the masks so much is that the masks hide a lot of the emotion an actor can portray. By its nature a mask conceals, and that makes it harder to see angst and joy and what not in the characters as they battle or do whatever heroes do. This isn't a new thing. You'll recall Keaton in a very earnest moment ripping of his cowl talking to Catwoman near the end of Batman Returns, and Toby McGuire had his mask off more than on in his three Spider-Man movies.
From a producer standpoint, keeping the masks on is better because then it's Iron Man, not Tony Stark in the movie and you can keep Iron Man going forever. But they go along with the maskless avengers for the creative points above.
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