The problem isn't the feelings for Sasuke, it's the way she expressed them. Her speech was all about her and what she wanted to happen. It had nothing to do with Naruto. So it makes the stuff she did in the land of Iron look really bad in retrospect. Hell it doesn't even make what she did in the land of Iron even make sense in retrospect. She should have at least acted like she would never tolerate him hurting the people she cares about. But it doesn't come off that way at all. It in addition to damaging the situation with her and Naruto, just makes her look really bad. And they haven't stopped this campaign to make her look pathetic since then.
That being said, he should still have been with Sakura. Just explain it away with something. Or at the very least, he shouldn't have been with Hinata. He should have been with Ino.
Of course, this is typical of Kishimoto: Make things a LOT more complicated than they need to be. I honestly have never seen any other character in any other media be treated this way. When a character in another series is criticized, people usually work to improve the said character. Instead, Kishimoto went "Well, people don't like her, and instead of addressing their criticisms or proving them wrong, I'm just going to make Sakura a fan-girl again, cause hey!"
I was hoping after the genjutsu stabbing, Naruto vs Sasuke would reach a point where both were exhausted, Sakura wakes up and just SNAPS, chasing after them, arriving in time just before Sasuke would land a killing blow, and get some good hits in to further drive him to Naruto's level or have the two of them work together, declaring she loves Sasuke no longer. After the conclusion, Sakura heals both (whether they have their arms or not is up to you) but is silent on Sasuke realizing his mistakes. Later, Sasuke apologizes for mistreating Sakura, Sakura also apologizes for not being the friend he needed, and hopes he finds what he really needs. Sakura warns him to never go out of his way to hurt her friends again, and have Sasuke smirk that if Sakura had shown her more confident self from the beginning, he could have fallen for her. Sakura just says something to the effect of "In Your Dreams"
Afterwards, Naruto meets up with Sakura at the bench. Sakura apologizes to Naruto for putting him through so much trouble for her, and somehow they bring up both confessions. There, you can have Sakura tell him that she meant what she said at the Land of Iron, but she was still uncertain about how she felt about Sasuke, and what she said in 693 was a lie in hopes she could stop them from fighting. After that, well, WE get what we want.
There's probably a lot of flaws with this premise, but it does highlight the problems with both Hinata and Sakura confessions to Naruto: THERE WAS NO FOLLOW THROUGH. Hinata confesses to Naruto, and he never talks to her again until months after during the war (well, I ASSUME it's months. Timeline wasn't crystal clear). Sakura does that whole muddy confession, and Naruto and Sakura just pretend it never happened. We never get a clear answer on whether or not it was a complete lie, and the Kushina stuff afterwards didn't help the situation any. He just kept hammering away at it, because it kept people interested.
