I was in school at that time (1998), but as far as I know, many of the matches were competitive. Obviously there were one-sided matches, but you will get them even when full member nations are playing. And test nations do have an advantage over the minnows as far as the 50-over format is considered. The shorter format (T20) may give the associate nations a bit more advantage.
Here is the entire scoreboard of the tournament and having a look at that which matches were competitive. Even the final between Australia and South Africa was a low scoring match and there were many scores below 100 in ODI which is not common even during that period.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/460200.html
T20 will give them an advantage against teams but if they allow in the Olympics they should not allow the full strength team against minnows and they need to have some restrictions.