It is not an either/or thing. You can absolutely remove the man abusing the people and tell the US to kindly fuck off.
I honestly don’t see how you can do that. The problem is that the opposition and the media is presumably propped up by the US. Under that type of siege (and it is a siege, the US is at war with Venezuela) you don’t have lots of choices. History has shown the results of US interventionism in many countries. So I do think it’s an either/or thing.
PS: Just look at Argentina how quickly the democratic and social progress of a country can be dismantled.
It is entirely possible, probable even at this point that Maduro just lost the confidence of his people.
Sure, it’s impossible to keep a democracy going with those sanctions. The US is allowing nobody to trade with them. Eventually they’ll surrender or collapse.