You also have to look at what their squad was like back then, we can't just look at everything from one side, but also from different sides. Does Portugal have a very solid squad? As far as I know, I have seen a solid squad from Portugal only in the last few years. And keep in mind that before Ronaldo they couldn't do much either. But in the Ronaldo Era they can make a lot of surprises.
I don't mean to say it's thanks to Ronaldo, but we can see how influential he is, especially in mentality. In the Euros they were able to get great success by winning the championship. Portugal is not a country like other countries that have a history of success with champions, we also have to see that.
This is the reason why we should look at the whole view of situation, since Portugal before is not considered as power house team. And they just became strong teams as many years past. But we can see on era of Ronaldo, his presence and also mentality lift his team.
They might not became a top country at that time, but he really help Portugal to push and compete for possible titles. Portugal success before is mixed with the development of their team before and also by help of Ronaldo's presence, the credit cannot be given to single person only.
You are right about that, it can be said that Ronaldo's presence motivates other players to work harder like Ronaldo did. Ronaldo was born from his hard work, he is one of the players who in my opinion deserves to be a role model for hard work during his career. Indeed, previously there were many big names who came from Portugal, but I felt the impact given was different from what Ronaldo gave.MS
I also agree that it's a combination of team development and so on. The development they show is also not obtained in an instant way, but the presence of Ronaldo gives its own role to what they can show at this time, that's my opinion.