You know what Rick should have done to make Athena more sympathetic?
Simple. Make Frederick ask Athena for a child so that he can have an actual demigod to raise and observe, rather like a science experiment or something (which makes him a bad parent, treating Annabeth like a project instead of an actual child, that Rick could've gone into later).
She's unsure, because he doesn't seem like the type to be able to raise a child, but he insists, so she gives him one. INSTEAD OF THE WHOLE NONCON WEIRD MENTAL THING WE GOT.
And then Frederick finds out that hey, kids aren't always the way you picture them, surprise! So he just kind of leaves Annabeth alone and then we get the whole stepmother plot and it continues in canon.
There are definitely parents like that in real life, so it would be more realistic and I think that more people might be able to relate to that.
And Athena guides her daughter and is angry at Frederick for not helping the child enough and with herself not to see how bad he would be at parenting, because she is the literal goddess of wisdom.