Sasuke's always been pretty popular. He does well in every popularity poll the series ever had (usually in the top three, he's won first a few times), the last one was around chapter 530, Sasuke placed second and that was during the War arc. Viz a;sp recently did a Boruto Popularity Poll and Sasuke ranked fifth, his worse ranking but still not bad. Based on Myanimelist's favourites, Sasuke is the fourth most popular character in Naruto, losing to Naruto, Itachi, & Kakashi in that order.
I too, hated that retcon.
I don't agree with that, the core of Naruto's character from the very beginning was his loneliness and desire to be accepted by his peers, something that he ended up accomplishing by the Chunin Exams by working hard, determination, and getting stronger. That's why I loved Naruto as a kid, I saw him as a pretty big source of inspiration. The series definitely became about the World the further along it got, but I don't think it's as early as Haku. That definitely introduces the topic, but what sticks out to me about that is how much Naruto & Haku related to each-other, as person born unwanted.
Even if fixing the broken world was what Naruto was about the whole time, the Neji story arc was explicitly about whether or not someone was capable of changing from their pre-destined route, about whether a person's value is dictated by birth. Naruto said that was BS during Hinata's fight, and Naruto himself was the main counter to Neji's point, defeating him with the very same Jutsu that caused Naruto to fail the Graduation exam several times.
Then it was revealed that Naruto is the most special ninja ever born, legitimate prophecy child, so Neji was basically right. And Rock Lee might've served as a good counter despite Naruto's destiny importance, but Rock Lee literally does nothing after the time-skip (in the manga at least, I think anime filler gives him something to do). so he's proving Neji right too basically.
