I like
Saul, I really do. Nevertheless, I somehow doubt that he could replace
Michael as a leader. He definitely got the right set of skills, but he is too driven by personal interests. He started his
Lizzy rescue mission without thinking a lot about the consequences for the other ones at
the tower. Yeah, this makes him quite likable - but he remains a hotshot. I do not know if he would be able to delegate tasks he has a personal interest in to
others. Besides, as you said, I do not know if he can cope with the results of hard decisions. Michael accepted his role as a "human lightning rod" (if you like) for the group. And the group at the tower on the other hand was funded on the simple fact, that each one's responsibility for anything going wrong could be deflected to a certain degree towards Michael. Even Saul and
Burt benefited from that.