Currently reading HF, 95% of the way through.
It's probably my favorite route in terms of events but man, Sakura weighs it down a LOT. I was ready to see her turn dark as early as the Medusa reveal but you just get endlessly blueballed until the tail-end of the story. I think it would've been far cooler if the filler murders were skipped and Dark Sakura manifested during day 11 or 12.
UBW had a similar sort of blueballing with Archer's identity but at least that route was shonen-ey enough to keep you interested via the fights and smaller twists. You get the early Servant deaths and the horror stuff in the first week or so for HF but it starts slowing to a crawl after Sakura gets poisoned.
I'm also convinced she's Nasu's self-insert cause she's somehow the most boring female character in the story. I like her but the syphilis voice and the waifubait-tier affection she has from Shirou is a massive turn-off. They used her well for the horror bits but making her the anchor of HF instantly brings the story down a rank for me. Would've preferred Ilya being Shirou's main motivation for his attitude changing, but she got her moments to shine in the route too, so it's not a big loss.
>inb4 Rinfag
I didn't care for her much either but UBW was the Archer route and therefore didn't suffer from waifuisms. If it weren't for it needing to be the introductory/exposition route, Fate would've been my favorite version of the FSN story. Shirou minimized the casualties caused by other Masters and also prevented Angry Mango - I think that's more than enough to make him a hero