I have to join the OP in the minority. I think Bogie is great in Sabrina and he's why I've watched the film more than once. In fact, I'd say the lack of chemistry is the point. Chemistry is all very well for a romantic comedy, but Wilder seems to have something more realistic in mind.
Sabrina is a girl who wants something more out of life than she has and mistakes her adolescent crush on David for that something more. David doesn't even notice her until she comes back "sophisticated" from Paris. Then he's all for having Sabrina as his distracting bit on the side. Oh, sure, he talks about running off with her, but his previous behavior indicates she's just a final fling before his next marriage (he even tells her he has no intention of getting disinherited on her behalf). Do they have chemistry? Boy, do they ever. But it's not love. And on David's side, it's not respect, either.
I think how we know Linus is right for Sabrina (since this is Sabrina's story and it's all about what man is right for her, not vice versa) comes from his actions, not any romantic "chemistry" between them. Linus is the one who finds her during her suicide attempt and saves her life in the beginning, while David is screwing another girl on the tennis court. Linus is the one who decides to be kind rather than harsh (i.e., paying her and running her off) when David develops an inconvenient infatuation for her shortly before his latest wedding/merger.
I think David's weird and furtive reaction to Linus' clumsy attempts to romance her are what start to make her see David as he really is. That moment after he kisses her, when he tells her they need to keep their "romance" on the sly and she says, "Keep talking, David. Keep talking," is so sad because you can see her perfect fantasy of him breaking and her desperate attempts to hold onto it in her mind.
Also, the film is surprisingly sympathetic on the topic of suicide. When they go out on the sailboat, Linus makes it clear he knew what she was doing in the garage by confessing that he once stood on the ledge outside his office for three hours, contemplating jumping, over a romantic rejection. It's possible he made the actual incident up (since he looks confused later when they're in his office and she asks about which ledge it was), but the way he talks about it on the boat, it's clear he has contemplated suicide and has suffered being ditched.
Also, when she asks why he didn't jump, he mentions there were kids playing hopscotch on the sidewalk and she comments that she always liked those kids. I think those two conversations demonstrate how much they have in common, compared to Sabrina's shallow crush on David and David's even-more-shallow (and dishonorable) infatuation with her new Paris-tuned self.
Linus' second act intentions aren't particularly honorable, either (he's trying to romance her to get her to leave quietly for Paris), but his misgivings, not to mention the script's artful contrast of his attempts to let her off gently with both David and their father's upper class callousness, show how he is beginning to fall in love with her for real--and that he would treat her well even if he weren't. He even blows the scheme by warning her just before she leaves and then trying to scupper the wedding/merger deal so David is free to run off with Sabrina (which gives David his one moment to step up to the plate and stop being a heel).
I wonder if part of Bogart's discomfort (and desire to have his wife on board) with the role was how close it was to what his parents originally wanted for him. He probably had more fun playing things contrary to his actual personality (like Linus' dislike of boats).
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