Dwarves are not heroes?

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Rumil

I think there may be a difference between a hero from a settled culture, who is in charge of, say, a unit of soldiers, like Eomer or Faramir, and Thorin's situation

True; I overlooked/neglected this part of your argument.

As for Bilbo being sent to explore on his own, I think his ability to move noiselessly was one of the reasons, the other being the fact that Smaug, who had never met a hobbit, wouldn't be able to identify his smell - these were the reasons why the Dwarves had agreed to hire him in the first place. (The magic ring proved rather handy, too, but I can't remember whether the Dwarves knew about it and its properties when they arrived at the Mountain.)