Disagree with you there, i agree with TacticalFox, Sasuke departure triggered an event where Sakura truly acknowledged Naruto and their relationship romatically wise started from there, and more importantly Sakura found a new resolution to her life which doesnt include wanting to be noticed by Sasuke.
Sakura was very much after Sasuke, and Sasuke however was begining to accept Sakura as a teammate (without his cold behavior) before, until Itachi and Orochimaru came and screwed up with Sasuke to a point that he didnt cared about anything anymore, which even lead to the infamous moment where he broke the plate where Sakura was using to serve apples to him.
Not saying althought that SS would happen but Sakura had little to no reasons to move on or even shift her feelings for Naruto, she acknowledged Naruto as teammate but could not even believe on his power until Sasuke left and from there NS started to being developed, he had some ground before but not on romantic terms.
If things were kept that way open ending was pretty much the likely outcome.
Sasuke wasnt a nice guy either but also wasnt that cold monster before the events of Itachi and Orochimaru.
I've seen characters like Sasuke on other mangas like The Sacred Blacksmith while on that the Sasuke there got paired with the main heroine it was due to the fact he at first was cold with her but later acknowledged her and supported her, which was something Sasuke never did and that lacked for SS to be a valid pairing in my opinion.
I disagree, Since Sakura-Chan was maturing anyways I believe she probably she would have figured it out for herslef that Sasuke ain't good for her. I agree with Chatte in what she said, she wants everything Naruto gave to her, the love, the care, the attention, the pampering, him always being there etc, thats just how her personality is. since Sasuke wasn't giving that to her, and since I believe to myself that she didn't love him to begin with, she's not stupid, she would have figured it out on her own, after a while of Sasuke treating her like dog kitten.