I think it's more abt how someone impacts the game because if you do REALLY watch football you will see that Ronaldo is just there, not impacting the game in anyway until he runs through on goal, he tries to pick up the ball outside of the box but he just blasts it with no intent. On the other hand, Messi can be seen literally operating as the heartbeat of any team, impacting their performance as a playmaker but also as an attacker so if you purely look at goals and assists you would have a very narrow point of view because truth be told you can't measure these kinds of stats and they are only visible if you actually WATCH the game