Not on the biggest stages. I still havent seen anyone since top his performances from the world cups in 02 and 98 combined.
Again, comparing international achievements is silly because neither Cristiano nor Messi can hand out birth certificates to someone like Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, R. Carlos, etc etc.
And even so, they were part of teams with significant success (CR EURO 2016, Messi WC 2014).
But as you mentioned that, in 98 Ronaldo scored 4 goals. Surely nothing spectacular for a then-considered the best player on the best team.
And he was completely gone from the final, so much so, that his performance in that game has always been clouded with mystery, speculating an illness etc.
His one big moment was vs a real good Holland side in the semi, but other than that, his whole WC was rather pedestrian for a striker of his reputation and quality at the time.
And 2002... Credit where credit's due, Brazil won, and Ronaldo scored 8 goals.
They faced China and C. Rica in group, Belgium in the 2nd round and Turkey in group and semis (both times they won by 1 goal helped on by some hilarious reffing).
The only "tier 1" team they played in that whole mockery of a tournament was England (2-1 win with goals from Rivaldo and Ronaldinho).
In the final, the poor, Ballack-less German side with Kahn in goal.
They (Brazil) had the best bracket in the worst WC ever.
Again, credit where credit's due, they won while the other favorites disintegrated and failed (internal conflict, bad games, or just flat out got pushed out by the refs in case of Italy and Spain).
But at no point was there ever hardship and trial for Brazil in 2002, it felt like a routine win after routine win vs inferior teams.
Ronaldo got the goals, but he never looked "otherworldly" or special really... It was a better team knocking off inferior teams and he was just the target man for it.
For example, just last season Cristiano scored 10 goals in 5 games vs Bayern, Juve and Atletico to lead Real to the CL. 5 goals in 3 games vs Juve and Atleti alone (world's two best defensive teams).
Messi has countless examples of his own special feats.
Certainly more impressive than R9's 98 and 02 WC tournaments.
TLDR; No, I can't see why anyone would call R9 in 1998 and 2002 the pinnacle of football. Not even close.