Odysseus is a hero, this is pretty much a given. He is considered to be a heroic figure by literally everybody and that satisfies my idea of a hero pretty well. Nonetheless, he receives a huge amount of help from the gods, especially Athena, who has a tendency to protect him, guide him, and help him out at every twist and turn (Calypso's release of him, his survival of the shipwreck, his discovery of Nausicaa, protective mist, etc.) The big question is whether or not this detracts from his heroism.
A really big idea throughout The Odyssey is fate. All of the characters just accept that the gods will do what they want with the humans and that they have no influence over that. The gods are perceived to essentially be uncontrollable forces of nature, and so by extension, Odysseus is basically just having a whole lot of good luck by being helped by Athena so much. Still, it's fairly easy to understand divine intervention being considered "cheating" because the sole heroic trait that Odysseus has is how badly he wants to go home (although this is contested multiple places, but that's a whole separate blog post). If he makes it home without any struggle or adversity, he's hardly a hero at all.
However, it can certainly be argued that this "good luck" is more than outweighed by Poseidon's wrath. If this is the case, then I feel like Athena's constant deus ex machina doesn't matter so much anymore. After all, is Harry Potter no longer a hero just because his life is saved by his friends? Is Frodo Baggins no longer a hero because Sam was the one who forced him to give up the ring? The levels of adversity in all of these stories immensely justify the received help, and every character (even Odysseus to an extent) underwent a psychological transformation, granting them their heroism.
I think that you make a good point in that there would be absolutely no way for Odysseus to defeat or escape Poseidon without the help of some god's intervention, so it would have been impossible for him to return home without Athena's help. If Athena had literally just picked up Odysseus and transported him home then killed all of the suitors for him, Odysseus would clearly not be a heroic character in this story. But, I think that it's fine to consider someone a hero after they receive help from friends to survive, but only if they have both shown heroic traits to deserve this help and they are still able to take action on their own, without help. Since Odysseus is clearly still able to defeat monsters and use his wit without Athena's help, I don't think her aid makes him much less of a hero.
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