This. I already pointed it out on the last page, unfortunately it was ignored. You either have a unit or you don't. If you have a superior unit, you should level her over someone weaker (e.g. Bernice > Leeanne), if you don't then it doesn't matter for you.
The skill has a long wt and ct. During the downtime 30% aff Soma deals more damage than 0% Daniela. Starting with 30% also means it's easier to max her out, which gives a pretty big attack boost. You're rather starved for affection items early on, so I value the headstart Soma gets a fair bit (I also focus on Alissa first over Iris for the same reason). The increase range skill can allow you to start hitting targets earlier, which shouldn't be swept under the rug.
As for skilling her up, while the skill is pretty common, it's still somewhat impractical early on. I'd rather keep the units as CC fodder.
It's true that Daniela is considerably stronger later on, when both are at 100% aff and you SU'd Daniela a few times, but personally I prefer the more friendly early phase Soma's starting aff provides since you get Spica sooner or later anyway to replace your starting silver archer. If you need a third archer for certain maps Soma should still be able to do a decent enough job.
To be fair, I'm a relatively new player, but I haven't regretted going for Soma over Daniela so far.