I hate SB's shot :V
Having an absurdly huge range and being decently powerful is a bad thing now?
I try to save my bombs for when I'm hit.
That's what you're doing wrong. You don't /try/ to deathbomb, you bomb in advance; 90% of deathbombs are you bombing in advance and happening to bomb at the last possible second (the other 10% is MoF scorebombing :V). You do not and will not have the reaction time to realize you've been hit and bomb fast enough.
Marisa...
Marisa moves fast.
She gets two bombs.
Those bombs subtract an ASSLOAD of cherries
when she dies it subtracts an ASSLOAD of cherries
Marisa's speed takes a few tries to get used to, then she's no more difficult to control than any other character.
You shouldn't be wrapped up in score anyway, if you're just going for a clear. And if you /are/ so concerned with score, SakuyaB happens to be the best in the game for that by far! :V
Also, SakuyaA is easily the easiest character to play as. But it comes with drawbacks. The cherry points drop far more than SakuyaB, if I recall, when you bomb. The shot is a little weaker than SakuyaB's also, but is aimed, so it's very useful in certain situations. (like the safespots in Ran and Yukari's last spells (excluding Danmaku Bounded Field) especially when the safespot is not directly under them) Also, Sakuya's focused speed is the fastest in the game, but it's actually not that hard to control. After a few plays with her, you got it.
I would recommend SakuyaA for a while. It will be the easiest with her. Either that, or possibly ReimuB. Whatever floats your boat.
SakuyaA has a hideous Cherry gain and is the weakest shot in the game. If you
really need a shottype to get used to the dodging aspect of the series, use ReimuA; her homing doesn't require you to focus, she's stronger than SakuyaA (and when homing Reimu is stronger than you, something is seriously wrong), and she has a much slower focused speed.