I'm not sure why people say Haruka is like Fushigi Yuugi, since Fushigi Yuugi is based on a fictional ancient CHINESE world whilst Haruka is based on an alternative Heian JAPANESE society.
Also a lot is lost in translation with this series, since its magic is mostly about the world in which Akane has been dumped and there are so many historical and cultural references which don't really carry over well into Western languages. The fact that real historical figures, families and situations/legends appear throughout the Haruka series (1-3 at least, probably 4 as well) seems to be easily overlooked, but the setting is incredibly detailed. For example, the house at which Akane is staying was the real property of the Sadaijin Fujiwara no Michinaga in the 990s, and Abe no Seimei was a real life Heian onmyouji who practiced the arts he bequeathed down to Yasuaki. Yorihisa's family tree extends back into the real Seiwa Genji line, and both the Fujiwara and Tachibana were significant court families during the Tenth Century. Clearly not just following "some stereotypical theme" then - much as I love Fushigi Yuugi, Mizuno Tooko's renditions of the Miko legend (also a real legend - the four Gods were historically meant to protect Kyou, as was a dragon) and the elements of the Gods is far more accurate than Watase Yuu's.
Secondly, Haruka is not a free-standing storyline but based on a Japanese neoroma game in which the objective is for the main character to save Kyou and wind up picking one of the male characters. So it's hardly surprising that that's the plot of the manga. The characters are from the game, though Mizuno-sensei fleshes them out far more thoroughly and effectively as the plot goes on, right up to the end of volume 17.
Obviously if you're not into historical manga adventure stories, or you have an aversion to romance, you probably won't like Haruka. But in my opinion it is the best and most detailed and interwoven of the Neoroma series (Angelique, Corda D'Oro and NeoAngelique being the others) and definitely worth the read (though those reading translated volumes will probably not have to wait ten years for the story to be finished!)