Kishi himself said that he was bothered by Sakura's unpopularity in an interview and tried to fix this by drawing her "beautifully" (LOL), so that means he expected her to be popular somehow and then though wrongly that she wasn't popular not because he screwed up her development and consistency but because he didn't draw her beautiful enough
this has been always my last resort of defense ever since kishi said that TBH. thank you for reminding me
ops goldenarms answered already. i was too slow lol