Yumi-chan

Hinata is the perfect love interest for Naruto in their eyes for qualities I have mentioned above, as long as its not Sakura the one who gets Naruto. Quite frankly without resolting to any bashing I think all those Hinata fans and anti Sakura fans are just jealous of Sakura that's mainly why they're obssession for Hinata comes from as well as their hatred for our favorite pink haired girl.

Sakura:

-is a main character of the manga (heroine important to the plot) Hinata is a secondary character (not important to the plot at all).

-She's the protagonist's love interest.

-She's one of the first people who acknowledged Naruto since the beginning of the manga.

-She understands Naruto's bond with Sasuke more than anyone (more than Hinata obviously, while she on other hand doesn't know the lenght of his bond with the Uchiha).

-She has become very close to Naruto (way more than Hinata) from someone she thought as annoying, to see him as a great teammate, to see him as a great friend and to eventually as a great love interest eventually leading to the development of slow romantic feelings.

-She's the one who keeps him in cheks like a dog on a leash whenever he acts stupid or perverted, she teaches him obedience (while Hinata well I won't even bother saying it).

-She's the only one who believes in him more than anyone in the village or probably the whole world, she has a lot of faith in him (Hinata on the other hand quite honestly I think she doesn't believe in him, she admires him and cares him because he's always trying hard but she doesn't has any faith in him).

-She risked losing her chance of being happy with Naruto by trying to kill Sasuke in order to protect him from the Uchiha and the possibility of getting capture by Akatsuki, resulting to his death for extraction of the Kyuubi (Hinata was willing to die protecting him I admire her for her sacrifice but I still see it as a selfish sacrifice).

Exactly.

And without Sai things probably would never have gone on a reasonable pace.

Sakura would be too blind to see it, and Nartuo would be too busy and occupied to even worry about confessing.

I'm glad Sai seems to do almost nothing but this. It makes me laugh that Kishi created him for this purpose.