I'm going to say this.
If you're going to go on about personal choices, fair enough. Are you going to do the same thing when Scott Hall and Jake Roberts come up because last I checked they'd only just got back on track (and that's thanks to DDP)
Jeff was pretty much in the top three whichever brand he was on. He chased the WWE title for part of 2007 and most of 2008 (and then won it) he also won the World title as well in 2009 and had arguably one of his best fueds ever against CM Punk.
Owen never won the WWF/E title at all. Yeah you're going to argue it was harder back then. But the fact that Hardy won both top titles shows that they thought he could do it considering he was up against Triple H, Edge, Randy Orton, Undertaker, Batista, John Cena and at the time they weren't really building anyone up (Punk at a stretch)