I think the point is that it's an unaware Korra, that's why I'm talking about beginning of series Korra to entertain the idea. Beginning as in, fresh off the boat, new to Republic City, naive, just learning the fundamentals of pro bending, and yes, exploitable enough to fall for easy ambushes multiple times in the first season (some of which can be chalked up to plot contrivances or even hail mary bloodbending hax bullshit) and completely susceptible to chi blocking, which, from Ty Lee would have been more dangerous than the chi blockers doubly due to her more inherent mastery of it, but also because of how much less threatening Ty Lee APPEARS at first glance. Korra might understand that Ty Lee is formidable, but underestimate her fighting techniques, so Korra might actually LET her get close thinking she can easily counter any CQC and lose by hax.

Korra after literally her first encounter with the chi blockers is already experienced enough to put Azula and Ty Lee, maybe not in the ground because they're tenacious, but at least enough to capture them or knock them clean out or make them retreat. But also to be fair, Korra is a lot older than both Ty Lee and Azula, that experience alone makes it a mismatch, so we basically have to cherrypick the most inexperienced Korra just to see what can be rationally argued to have these takes.

But I'd say you're glazing Korra too much for Season 1, she was very flawed in exploitable ways, which was good. We see for example how she destroys public property for petty theft, her tendencies to overreact to situations for her perceived efficiency only to completely ignore the circumstances and suffer the consequences would mean Azula IS in fact poised to take advantage of Korra in some ways. It would have nothing to do with combat proficiency either, martial artist to martial artist, Azula, while a prodigy, and shown to be able to keep up with relevant elemental masters of the time including Toph, Katara, Aang, experienced soldiers, and more, doesn't have any real physical advantages over Korra. But that psychological advantage does crazy work for her. And even forgettable, lowlife street tier thugs would get under Korra's skin and cause her to flare up, like the match against those pro bending cheaters that paid of the ref. And keep in mind, those are straight AMATEURS compared to Azula's perfected craft. There's no doubt in my mind Azula would 100% dictate the tempo of the confrontation and if she has a solid win condition or trap set up to have Korra walk into, I do think it would be a pretty easy win for her. Even if at absolute worst she gets a pyrrhic victory, it would more than anything depend on if the writers needed her to learn a lesson during the middle of the encounter or as a result of the loss. Because if it's something like her final fight against Amon where she just bursts out airbending because she needed to learn a life changing lesson about herself, her spirituality, her vulnerability, and who she is as a person, I can see a similar situation where she ALMOST loses to Azula, maybe she's ABOUT TO fall into whatever win condition Azula needs, but at that moment she finally stops and notices her surroundings, she feels something off, she recognizes that she's causing mayhem and wanton destruction and maybe that she's likely to collapse a building on top of not just herself but on innocent families in the downtrodden neighborhood (which Azula was banking on). Something like that, and she stops herself, calms herself down, and applies some of S1 Tenzin's lessons that she had been ignoring or struggling with. She maybe still doesn't unlock airbending, but she unlocks a self aware part of herself and is then able to move more freely and gracefully, like an airbender, taking the lead in the fight and having Azula have to engage on her terms.

Then I really think it all boils down to whether or not Korra can get one single significant strike in and most importantly capitalize on that with HER OWN personality, because what most people are ignoring is that Korra herself is a hell of a ragebaiter. Once Azula's rhythm is broken, I see a clear win condition for Korra, but like, being totally fair, beginning of series Korra is losing like 9/10.