Agree with that to the extent that I think Messi was possibly more thrilling to watch before that ridiculous hoard of goals he got. That might have been because it was new and exciting, but to me he definitely seemed much more efficient in that season than in the one's where he pulled off perhaps more ridiculous things.
His peak for raw dribbling was in his early years, before striking a balance around 09-11 where he was at his best to watch allround IMO. Then he became a bit a goal machine for a couple of years after that while losing some of the raw excitement he had. Now he's had some injury and form problems he's at a position where he's changing again and reassessing the way he plays, particularly now Barca's strength is with the forward line rather than the midfield (imo).