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It has to do with Verb Tense.
In your example, "I thought he died," that would mean you thought he had died in the past.
"I thought he was dead" would mean that you thought he had died recently or in this situation, in the present time.
Interesting, as an ESL speaker of US English (for several decades nonetheless) the timing sounds the reverse for me:
"I thought he died" seems to imply the death was recent, and "I thought he was dead" implies the death happened some time ago.
Native speaker here, the OP you are responding to is incorrect.
"Dead" isn't a verb and so it does not have past or future tenses. It is an adjective describing a state of existence.
Died and dying are tenses of the verb die.
"He died, I am dying, now, I die."
"He was dead, I am dead, I will be dead."
(Edit - truth be told, this is a unique case, because "he was dead" implies that he isn't dead anymore. Which only maybe applies when someone experienced cardiac arrest and was resuscitated. "I thought he was dead" is a totally normal sentence, but still implies that he isn't dead presently.)
I agree with your interpretation, but it's not a hard rule - "I thought he was dead" and "I thought he died" are both grammatically correct regardless of how long ago the death happened, but the latter sounds more specific to me.
"I thought he was dead" sounds like "I haven't heard about him in awhile, I assumed he was not alive anymore"
But "I thought he died" sounds like "I thought he specifically died in that fire three years ago."