Oh, if Ayaya and Ai-chan were in H!P Airi would definitely be third. I just feel like anyone who's non-MM tends to get shafted. Ayaya is honestly kind of a relic of the past and who knows if anyone as good as Ai-chan will ever reappear.
And I'm not denying that Sakura is good; she has both talent and a rather pleasant tone of voice (which is arguably more important than actual technique). But at the same time other than the audition footage and the Kono Chikyuu audio, we don't have anything else to base her off of. Hopefully she lives up to the hype.
Also, it'd be kind of pointless if Sakura doesn't lead/center the next single. Hopefully UF* knows what they're doing.