The point of being Top 3 side in cricket is a moot one because South Africa were a top 3 side from the late 00s until 2013 but no one talks about them because India won the 2011 WC and everything revolved around it.
Similarly WI players were seen as the top T20 products for nearly a bracket of 8-10 years along with Pakistan players & SLs because they won those trophies in that era. The same was the case with 2015 WC, the 2017 CT and the 2019 WC again.
Pakistan would realistically remain a mid table team, until the grassroot restructuring matures because sport ROI is 5years+ almost everywhere (PSL is a prime example), however that would not disable them from being a strong contenders for trophy titles because playing good cricket for 3 weeks is something Pakistan can do no matter who they field for a tournament, at least in the coming 12-15 years of cricket.
You can have a problem with fans and that's completely fine but sentiments like these do not hold any tangible weight because it amount to exactly the same as how I might have a problem with nuts in the Ice Cream I eat.
Discussing sports should never be in absolute terms because information, situation, athletes and technologies change and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
Rankings are not a moot point because they reflect the consistency of a team, and consistent teams usually are more likely to win tournaments.
Pakistani fans are usually dismissive of Test and ODI rankings because we have rarely had the quality to consistently be a high ranked team in both formats. Since the current ranking system was introduced, we have held the Mace only once and that too for about 3 weeks, and the last time we were in the top 2 in ODIs was in 2006.
It is a misconception that rankings have no relevance when it comes to winning tournaments especially ODI tournaments - sure they more often than not do. Sure every now and then, you will have poor teams like Pakistan and WI winning CT in 2017 and 2004, but more often than not the higher ranked sides win ODI tournaments.
You have to go all the way back to 1996 to find a World Cup winner that (a) wasn’t top ranked (b) wasn’t hot favorite or (c) both.
I don’t remember if Australia was 1,2 or 3 leading into the 2015 World Cup, but they were hot favorites because the World Cup was in Australia.
Similarly, England was world number 1 going into the 2019 World Cup and they proved that their ranking was justified by winning the World Cup.
Pakistan is seen as a mid-table, weak side in spite of winning an ODI tournament in 2017 because we are always languishing at 6th, 7th and 8th in the rankings.
Pakistan needs to build a team that is consistently ranked in the top 4 because that will maximize our chances of winning the World Cup.
If we keep living under this illusion that rankings do not matter because we can turn up in tournaments and because we have done it twice in 50 years of ODI history, we will probably never win a World Cup again in a very, very long time.
Also, the current format of the World Cup which we saw last year and will probably see again in 3 years time puts low ranked teams at a disadvantage and rightly so.
With each team playing each other and no quarterfinals, more often than not, the top 4 ranked sides will end up in the top 4 positions. Sure you will get a couple upsets like we had in 2019, but ultimately, the superior teams will shine through.
If by 2023 Pakistan is among the top 3 ODI sides in the world, we will have a strong chance of winning the World Cup.
However, if we are still the poster boys of mediocrity like we are today, then no amount of meetings with Imran Khan and Cornered Tiger speeches will help us win the tournament.
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