He now told me that Naruto doesn't understand love. I replied with a comment about the POAL. Whatever he says back, I don't even care. He'll say he won, but whatever. Not worth my time.
Love - a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person; a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection
How are Naruto's personality and actions when he is in the same area as Sakura not indicative of this textbook definition of love? Whenever he is interacting with Sakura he expresses a profoundly soft-hearted, ungrudging demeanour that has never been provided to any other character in this manga from him. Sakura reciprocates those uncommon sentiments with a deeply concerned and cherishing personality of her own; some of her expressions of happiness are provided exclusively to the person whom she likes/loves if Sai's words hold weight. Even though they may hold the other person close to their hearts they do have their multifaceted goals in life. They're not consumed with such overbearing thoughts on their selective image of the other person that they lose all focus of the other people and events in their lives. But when they do think about the other person they consider all of their qualities, both the positive and negative ones, and they choose to remain by each other's side because they are able to look past their imperfections.
How would Naruto's infrequent communication with Hinata detail a greater level of personal understanding or romantic endearment from Naruto? Yes, on several layers Hinata's actions and thoughts would consistently match that criteria but when you consider her lack of understanding or acknowledgement for Naruto's personal conflicts or even his relationships with other characters in general it depicts a girl with such a massive disconnection from her crush's life that you begin to question why she would even have those sorts of thoughts relating to him. Oh, but Hinata is so fixated on what little of his character that she chooses to acknowledge that she even fails to provide much thought to her other ambitions in life or the people who have more direct involvement in her day-to-day activities like her teammates and family.
How is the latter supposed to represent a superior concept of love when it is riddled with single-minded obsessions that inhibit your ability to even think about the well being of the people who actually love you? There isn't even an understanding of Naruto's entire character, only what Hinata selectively decides to fabricate his personality around exclusively. Hinata's vacant expressions and detachment from the rookies as they gathered around Sasuke, someone who is very personally involved in Naruto's life, is a perfect indication of how well she truly understands Naruto's life which is nonexistent.
Naruto and Sakura both have such an intense, heart-felt understanding of each other that they do not even require spoken words to understand what the other's intentions are. They have stood by each other's side for years now and have experienced just about every conceivable emotion that two individuals can feel together. Their actions and intentions are selflessly motivated because they place the happiness of the other person above their own. Furthermore, as it was hinted previously, you can infer from their personal interactions that they are happiest when they have each other's company.
Considering all of the above, I have to ask again why anyone would believe that Hinata's infatuation with Naruto is any more pure or comprehensive than Sakura's relationship with him.