He does something like that in canon too, in a way. ^__^ When Sakura is down, when they go to register for the exam, and he casually points out that she had to have noticed the genjutsu even before he did. I think mostly it's because she's so not competition in anything else that he can appreciate the parts where she does outshine him -- especially since they're not too useful in all-out battle and that's his speciality. Besides he's not stupid either, so it isn't as if he's got anything to feel insecure about.

Guhh, you're right. I thought it was a bit too long to still make sense, but I didn't know how to fix it. Thank you! ^__^