It could be that Odin lost a good deal of power to move to the mortal realm. He probably couldn't take on the LOONs directly anymore, they'd gang up on him and kill him. But he could show up and fight their minions.
but he doesn't seem to have lost any of his knowledge and hes the one who taught OG merlin the demon reach creation level magic wasn't he?
And he seems to have retained the king of the gods level information network through his raven things and other spies
So he cant stand toe to toe against them but he could cheat so bad in fights he would make Dresden's tricks seem like a 2 year old. I would guess that he might not be that far from harry's demonreach inteliectus but everywhere when you combine all that and extra mantles and the senior council level powerups he probably has stashed away after doing his thing with freedom to act for a
long time.
Now to the main thing. Ive wanted to mention this for a while now.
If you think it through being the winter knight is great for Dresden.
Everyone gets way to hung up on Mab being unlikeable and ignores the big picture.
Think back through every single thing Mab has had Dresden do and they're all things he would have wanted to do anyway but couldn't have pulled it off on his own.
Lets see Mab ordered him to stop a Faye war she couldn't stop on her own that would have at least sent civilization back to the stone age. um yeah how dare she.
Some very convoluted plot which resulted in molly not being executed and a major blow against the red vampires. once again how dare she.
She gives him the magic muscle and even coordinates allies for him to completely destroy the red court and save himself, blackstalf,maggie, maybe the Wraiths.
Orders him to help in a plot that ultimately stopped marcone or the archive from becoming a denarian.
gets him to stop the outsiders from destroying the universe, and gets rid of 2 n-fected high positions and the summer lady whos too stupid to be a leader during the Apocalypse.
gets him to stop the denarians from getting a massive power up and gets him the massive power up and a few mill in diamonds.
has the leanshe kill thousands of things that try to come through the never never to kill him, Also has her watch over him very closely since he was born. Has the leanshe protect then hand over all of the knowledge of the ways from Maggie SR.
( the leanshe is COMPLETELY loyal remember. Her actions are supported by Mab.
Mab seems to be preparing to lead earth through apocalyptic level dangers and Dresden is becoming her main problem solver.
Why wouldn't Odin push harry towards that?
Harry always rushes at things with no thoughts to the danger.
The winter court has always been watching and insuring its possible for him to win his various fights.
Also in case you missed it Mab seemed to want or at least be fine with a romantic relationship between Dresden and her daughter whom she was grooming for power.with Molly as the backup so no shes not going to kill dresden for something minor.
She has a crazy amount invested in him by now.
It seems from my point of view that Mab has been viciously protective of Dresden even too the point of ignoring all her duties and risking all out war with summer to keep Dresden's body alive.
which means keeping Dresden alive was more important to her than losing 6 -9 of time when she has a LOT on her plate.
Yes she acts very mean to him. That is necessity to shape him into someone who will be able to survive what she knows is coming.