I was thinking about how people let him off lightly because he 'only plays for Portugal' (as if they haven't been a strong team throughout his career, him aside).
If you dropped any version of Ronaldo, including prime Ronaldo, into any of Messi's Argentina teams (in place of Messi) or any of Neymar's Brazil teams (in place of Neymar) I am 99.9 percent sure that they wouldn't have won the trophy with him in the team or him even doing as well as Neymar sometimes for his country despite Brazil not winning much recently. He just isn't that player at international level.
I get the feeling some think Portugal hold him back (it's the inverse) and that if he played for the top international teams he'd win everything. He'd likely have won the three in a row with Spain as they were so dominant, and maybe the 2014 World Cup with Germany as they were strong, maybe 2018 with France (though I don't think he could replicate Mbappe's left wing tournament that year) but that's true of any dominant team. If you ask him to transform a team that isn't the number one favourite but still faces intense pressure due to historical prestige, like Argentina in any of Messi's tournaments, or Brazil, and make them champions, I don't think he can do it. So it's a misleading argument from his fanboys and essentially relies on counterfactual history. It lets him off the hook as he 'only' plays for Portugal and has never faced the pressure Messi does with Argentina.
On a larger scale, it's like people saying 'George Best only played for Northern Ireland' or 'George Weah played for Liberia'. That's true, and it isn't their fault, but it also let them off the hook for any pressure. Would George Best be seen as a lesser player now had he been English and had the opportunity to fail in the World Cup? Rather than being from Ulster and facing no expectation? How would he have dealt with Messi's pressure had he been born Argentine? Yes he'd have had miles more chance to play in big tournaments and win stuff, but alongside that comes the pressure and expectation to do so. Plus people forget that N Ireland didn't qualify for any tournament while he was playing, but did just before and just after he retired, I find that interesting.
This post has evolved from criticising Ronaldo (again) to showcasing how - at different levels of ability - most nations and players don't face the intense scrutiny that Messi has for Argentina, including Ronaldo and Portugal. That's due to a historical performance from past teams and people forget Messi is the main reason current Argentina can even be mentioned with those past legendary teams. People let Ronaldo off the hook for his failures with Portugal, while not acknowledging he has never faced the same pressure Messi has at international level. Messi thrived under that pressure in the end, and Ronaldo wilted under less intense scrutiny.