Really? Defenders could kick the shit out of forwards with impunity back then. It was only really in the late 1990s that thuggish defending got clamped down on and it has only really been the past five or six years where the art of the 'reducer' has been all but removed of the game. That has hugely benefited attacking play. It's good for the game, but it doesnt mean that everybody today is suddenly brilliant. Messi would have been less effective if he had been afforded as little protection as, say, Marco Van Basten.
Defenders try to hack him down These days, and he still Skips past them. Its all based on opinion I guess. And like Maradona, Messi would have humiliated the defenders if he played back then.