You're lacking members if you want a true harem. So, Lancer, Gilgamesh and Shinji Issei? I want an Issei route, especially since he sounds so manly this time.
Rin sleeps with 3 characters across the three routes (Saber, Shirou and Rider) and has romantic tension with two others (Archer and Lancer). That leaves 5, which is perfectly reasonable for a harem protagonist. Hell considering the amount of ridiculous tension between all said characters, she could probably bag a harem ending sans Rider.
I mean lets be honest here, Shirou is not the one who got the harem in UBW Good End.
The way I see it, they're essentially the same story, told in different ways. They're both abused, they're both masking their inner nature and suppressing their emotions, they're both the final route girl and they both turn evil. Call it a Nasu archetype, perhaps.
I suppose it's possible that I began with "I think Sakura is an uninteresting character" and then made the comparison with Kohaku who is one of my favourites, and thus made the differences into failings, however I don't think it's a bad comparison even so. Their functions in the narrative are broadly similar.
I just consider Kohaku to be a character, and Sakura to often be more of a prop.
I guess? I don't really see it to be honest. She's obviously a plot device, acting as motivation for both Rin and Shirou, but she doesn't lack characterization. She's definitely the least combat ready of the main cast, and spends much of the plot as the damsel needing saving, but she's also got a lot going on which I appreciate.
I mean, your view is not uncommon, but in general I guess I just don't get it, she's got a lot going on with her character from how I see it.
Movies and broadcast series have rather different content restrictions. I rather doubt they'll show anything as explicit as Fujino's scene in KnK.
Frankly, I never liked the "prana transfer" stuff anyway, so I hope they just cut it out entirely.
I'll agree with this though, outside of Heaven's Feel the whole 'we must contrive a reason for our characters to have sex' thing is a really weird aspect of Nasuverse stuff in general. As much as I enjoy watching Rin be a bossy boots getting Shirou and Saber to have sex or Ciel being like "Oh dear your vampiric possession means you need to DO ME IN THE ASS" I'd enjoy them way more if they where not ridiculously contrived.
Having said that, Heaven's Feel kind of needed them.
That I will certainly agree to. His appeal is a mystery to me.
Shirou is a nice, legitimately socially awkward guy who makes a lot of effort for those her cares about. His character arc across the entirety of the three routes in Fate/Stay Night is interesting and breaks down a lot of the standard 'manly hero traits'.
Also he's tied with Sakura for best waifu in the game. Rin is awesome but she's someone you cook for, not someone who cooks for you.