Just a random anime fan.

I feel like for Vampire Knight to be a story of betrayal it has to be written a little bit more complicated than it is, because otherwise it's not intuitively read as that. I agree though, that it may be weird to speak about true love when there are two guys who are hanging out with the FMC, but perhaps, that's the point? Like, you can have as many love partners as you wish but only one of them can be supposed as your true love. Not my belief, but it feels like this is what Hino is trying to show in VK. So, it's not weird for Yuuki to call some other man with a word that is also can be translated as "love", because loves are different and only one is true (from Hino's point). Anyhow, if we're going to dive into the "ai vs ren" hell circle then we already know what is what and that ai is superior to ren (koi) - the fandom has been discussing this topic for years now. So idk what to add here.

Well, um, while I agree that Yuuki did make mistakes that could've been avoided if during a certain period of time she was fully devoted to Kaname only, I still stand on the ground that we cannot make it only her responsibility while it's more connected to Hino's weak representation of true love as a concept. She was lost somewhere on the path between "true love" and "dark bloody vampire love" and didn't manage to connect those. Therefore it looks the way it does.

Well, my guess it could be two options:

about zeki: Hino always does same things - if one period of the plot it was yume-heavy, then we should expect that later she shows more of zeki, and vice versa (talks about insecurity, yup). Maybe it's some scenes from the past when they discuss how Yuuki's gonna sacrifice herself for Kaname and what Zero's attitude towards that is.

He kissed her yes and he was also caressing her hair like the way he touches Yuuki's hair. The scene where she's looking at him and around her are pieces of a mirror breaking in, during the parting scene. He was bending over broken shards of a mirror, grasping at the scattered shards, crying over the loss. It hinted at someone that also had the potential to be a deep connection but that was lost in the past.

And when he was standing in front of these flames, another sound was heard. The mirror behind him that Yuuki had stepped on. She asks him if she could be a replacement to the HW and Kaname replies "No one could ever be a replacement for anyone else and this is why goodbyes are always painful"

The hw abandoning him was given as a reason for Kaname's fear of loss and the protectiveness he felt for Yuuki, going to any lengths. Only for everything to be given to zero. By hurting kaname, yuuki/hino gained nothing/zero.

Now that ship sank before it could even sail but hino really did show HW as a potential love

Exactly!

It wasn't just a kiss there, there were so many more moments that confirmed that they had a stronger connection. Now again, I emphasize that it's visible Yuuki is Kaname's greatest love and VK is basically a story about Yume, but I don't see it as a problem that he might have had someone in the past. So why is it a problem to imagine he may have mad some feelings for HW, is a mystery to me.