Please don't get me started, either.
First, which soundstracks of sakuraba did you listen to? Yes, he does vary similar melodies in some of his game, but now compare Baten Kaitos, Tales of Symphonia and Eternal Sonata. Not too many similarities here, except sakurabas style, which is always noticeable. That's good thing, though, at least for me.
Just listen to baten kaitos' battle themes, or Eternal Sonata's leap the precipice. They are genius.
Also, did you ever listen to the music he makes apart from video games? His progressive rock albums? Or one of his piano pieces? They are just beautiful, and sound completely different from his soundtracks.
Sakuraba is a musical genius, and he succeeds Uematsu in my opinion. Few other video game componists ever made me pause a game to listen to their music, for several hours. Sakuraba did, Uematsu didn't.
I'm not saying Uematsu is bad, just that his music doesn't work out for me as well as sakurabas does.