Originally Posted by LapLap

I’ve been seeing a tendency for the Sakura to bloom earlier and earlier as an ongoing trend.

So yes, if you have the chance to go earlier, and the Sakura is important to you, it will be much safer to go those couple of days earlier.
You won’t have to cram as much in as soon as you arrive, less stress about missing things. And you almost certainly won’t be there too early - not unless the weather gets REALLY freaky.