Whether or not it's "better than anything Haruka" remains to be seen (I'd still say ep3 will be hard to top in entertainment value), but it's a good start into Kaoru's arc. I think Itlandm put it nicely when he said "She's hard not to like".
It's simply an entirely different kind of relationship going on here
... and one which is probably much easier to relate to for most viewers.
So I gave it a 8, with tendency to 9. Let's see where we end up when things get interesting!