This idea that he fell into the love he already had for Hinata is so laughable. He thought she was weird. He didn't really know how to talk to her or what her deal was so he mostly didn't talk to her. He did not have an understanding of what her behavior meant and probably thought it meant she didn't really like talking to him. He probably avoided her most of the time. He fought Neji on her behalf because it was so abhorrent to his core values, NOT because he had an attachment to Hinata. The failure speech is literally going to be the ONLY thing he thinks about when he thinks about her. Compared to what he had with Sakura that is nothing at all.
Characters that would be happier if Naruto and Sakura were together:
Naruto
Sakura
Sasuke (probably, he could be with Karin who would travel with him and support him more than Sakura. Plus he'd be happy for his two friends. I really like thinking of Sasuke as really caring about his friends. I don't like to think that he would just accept Sakura's unhappiness in the canon. I really want to think that he wouldn't.)
Karin herself (gets to be with Sasuke)
Kakashi
Iruka
Tsunade
Jiraiya
Ino (I doubt she likes seeing her friend being miserable)
Sakura's parents
Minato and Kushina
Obito would think it was awesome
Sarada (could be with both parents)
Gaara (would be happy that his friend was happy)
Shikamaru, Konohamaru, other friends of Naruto and Sakura (same reason)
Rock Lee (probably doesn't like seeing Sakura being miserable and same reason)
Sai (obvious)
There are probably others.
Characters that would be happier if Naruto and Hinata were together:
Hinata
Like I keep bringing up, you could literally take any and every (few) moment Hinata has had in the spotlight throughout the manga and replace her with virtually any other character, even miscellaneous, nameless characters, rearrange a few words, and nothing would change regarding the actual narrative or how Naruto would react.
Like against Pein, I would much rather have.had some random Konoha villager(s) who initially treated Naruto badly as a kid be the one(s) to step between him and Pein while admitting how wrong he was / they were about him and ask Naruto for his forgiveness before rushing at Pein and getting "killed". Again, Naruto would have reacted exactly the same way as he did with Hinata because that is the type of character he was - someone who saw everyone in Konoha as his "precious people" that he would fight for, protect, and die for if necessary.
It was so kittened up that Neji ended up being right about destiny. He died as a slave of the main family on behalf of the main family just as his father did. It's an awful message. How could no one close to Kishimoto have seen that? Or did they and they just didn't care?
As long as Naruto ended up with Hinata, Kishimoto could literally turn "Naruto" back into a story about ramen and such and they wouldn't say a thing about it.
Well Catra they did it to show how much Kushia loved Hinata I bet why else would they do it need to show off that Hinata is the best female just look at all the fillers that Hinata gets.
Or look at Hinata's art and animation whenever she appeared before. Again, Naruto vs. Pein in the anime had some of the worst and most awkward-looking art and animation and yet as soon as Hinata's five minutes begin, they try to make it look like a freaking big budget film, detailing practically every single strand of Hinata's hair, making sure the lighting is perfect, and so on. Then it goes right back to the terrible and awkward animation.
Of course, NOW they're trying to their hardest to keep Hinata hidden away in the background again, with minimal animation, hoping that the fan base that had abandoned them would eventually forget and come back to them.
Naruto's parents would be so disgusted with him. He lied to his father's face when his father was DEAD. Minato was surprised and happy that Naruto had found someone like Kushina for him. He lied to you Yondaime.
Kushina begged him while she was DYING impaled by a giant CLAW MADE OUT OF DEMON CHAKRA. PLEASE FIND SOMEONE LIKE ME TO TAKE CARE OF YOU. Don't go for the first girl who likes you. He ignored her.
Love isn't a kittening game. Maybe he really couldn't get Sakura to love him. That would be really unfortunate. But don't just kittening jump into Hinata's arms. She doesn't suit you AT ALL. You have zero chemistry with her and she will not make you a better person in any way. Maybe Ino? She has a lot of the traits Naruto would like. Maybe a foreign kunoichi? Temari if she wasn't taken by Shikamaru? There are a lot of possibilities. Naruto decided to be a lazy kitten and ignore his parents.
I've read a lot of good fanfics involving other girls for Naruto, including crack pairings like Kin, Tayuya, Karin, Anko, etc..
A number of ones involving Ino were pretty good too. Let's face it, personality-wise, Sakura and Ino were practically impossible to tell apart a lot of the time in part one. Such fanfics usually having Ino initially feeling sorry for Naruto after witnessing several moments of Sakura's "abuse" and decides to talk to him out of pity, but through that one action, she quickly learns he's not quite the "dumb" person she and others pinned him as (not "smart" or anything, of course, but certainly knows more than he let's on), thus sparking interest in finding out more, leading to her talking to him more even outside of the academy, which leads to her finding him training and offering to help him, and Naruto's own determination inspiring her to actually become stronger and more serious about her own career and, without even really noticing it herself at first, not thinking or caring SO much about Sasuke like before and things just go on from there.