This is a good question! The short answer is yes, by around the year 1600 the pike was widely seen as the highest-status weapon for an infantryman in most of europe, and even if they still didn't quite match the social status of a heavy cavalryman they still held a pretty high status overall. Sir James Turner, a veteran of the 30 Years War in the 17th century, would later recall how companies raised in France and the Low Countries during that period had so much trouble finding someone to fill the position of sergeant, in large part because the nature of his duties required that he carry a halberd instead of a pike. According to him, too many gentlemen would insist on becoming pikemen even if they only received 1/3rd the pay of a sergeant and the sergeant got to beat them on the head with his halberd during drills.

I've written before a bit about how pikes came to prominence and how pikes fought in the 16th century, but in short a well-ordered wall of pikemen on flat ground was widely considered unstoppable in close combat, and was the only thing that could reliably resist a charge by heavy cavalry or another square of pikemen.

As I hinted at, in some ways the status of the pike had elements which carried over from the middle ages. The inspiration for the pike supposedly came from dismounted knights, fighting with their lances held in both hands like a very long spear. Dismounted men at arms would continue to occasionally serve as ad-hoc armored pikemen during much of the 15th and 16th centuries, especially as the pike became more popular. Additionally, even though pikes continued to fight alongside halberds and other weapons for quite some time, they were by far the most effective in the front ranks of a mass of infantry. From there long pikes could do the most damage during the initial impact with the enemy, and could be used to their maximum effect before any disorder started to set in. The front rank had always been the most honorable place to be on medieval battlefields as the position for the bravest, strongest, and best armored fighters.

Setting it aside somewhat from medieval infantry though, the long pike proved a very cumbersome weapon and required a great deal of strength and skill to wield effectively. Learning to march and fight with these weapons without becoming disordered or crowding the man on either side of him required a whole new level of drill and discipline. The Landsknechts in particular were soon known for putting on a show and awing spectators everywhere. Hans Delbruck includes an example from 1495 when the Germans arrived to aid the duke of Milan:

All eyes were attracted to a phalanx of Germans which formed a square and was composed of 6,000 foot soldiers commanded by Georg von Eberstein (Wolkenstein) on a splendid horse. In keeping with the German custom, a large number of drums was heard in this battle formation, almost strong enough to burst one's ears. Wearing only breast armor, they strode along with but little interval between their ranks. The leading men carried long lances with a sharp point, while the following ranks held their lances high. They were followed by halberds and men with two-handed swords. They were accompanied by color bearers whose signals caused the entire unit to move to the right, to the left, and to the rear, as if it were moving along on a float. These units were followed by men armed with the harquebus, with crossbowmen on their right and left. When opposite Duchess Beatrix, on a signal, they suddenly shifted the square into a wedge (that is, the broad formation into a narrow one, or the square with sides of equal length into a square with equal numbers of men on each side). Then they divided into two wings, and finally the entire mass swung about as one part moved very slowly and the other very quickly so that one part revolved about the other, which stood still, so that they appeared to form a single body.

Again, while halberds, battleaxes, sword&shieldmen and other short weapons were often still included in a pike square their advantage was that they were much more flexible; useful in a pell mell or on rough terrain when order fell apart. In the eyes of many observers this only served to further contrast the modern professionalism of the pikemen and these older "medieval" weapons more often found in skirmishes and in the hands of untrained levies than proper solders.

As the infantry successfully challenged the dominance of heavy cavalry over the course of the italian wars we start to find more and more examples of noblemen dismounting and fighting on foot among the pikemen. Emperor Maximilian himself at times took pride in marching on foot at the head of his landsknechts with a pike at his shoulder.

During the battle of Ceresole in 1544, Blaise De Montluc was put in command of a large formation of Gascon pikemen. In his account of the battle he writes:

The Germans march'd at a great rate directly towards us, and I ran to put my self be∣fore the Battail, where I alighted from my horse; for I ever had a Lacquey at the head of the Battaillon ready with my Pike; and as Monsieur de Tais and the rest of the Cap∣tains saw me on foot, they all cry'd out at once, Get up, Captain Montl•c, get up a∣gain, and you shall lead us on to the fight. To whom I made answer, that if it was my fate to dye that day, I could not dye in a more honorable place than in their Company, with my Pike in my hand.

The fighting seems to have been extremely fierce, and he would go on to describe how a great number of captains and worthy men on both sides were killed or injured during the fighting.

I was never in my life so active and light as that day, and it stood me upon so to be; for above three times I was beaten down to my knees.

By the second half of the 1500s the role of the pike was changing again as the proportion of arquebusiers and musketeers on the battlefield increased dramatically. By the end of the century firearms had become the number one killing weapon and it had become rare for infantry to actually meet each other in hand to hand combat before the outcome of battle was decided, and if two blocks of pikemen actually did meet each other in a push it could last only briefly before one side was routed by volleys of musket fire delivered point blank into their flank. Even against cavalry, who had largely given up their lances for short range pistols and carbines, a pike square on its largely useless unless well supported by arquebusiers and musketeers who could outrange the horsemen’s small arms.

It was at this point that the pike became a largely psychological weapon, which rarely did any actual killing much like the bayonet would in the 1700s. Nonetheless it remained a very important one and contemporary military writers continued to hammer home its necessity, doubling down on the need for well trained and extremely brave pikemen to win battles, even if they mostly spent their time standing around being shot at. As Robert Barret put it the shot may be “the furie of the field” doing the most of the actual killing, but the armored pikemen were still “the strength of the battell”.

. . . hee is but a foolish shot, that shooteth at, or among light skirmishers, where he may discharge vpon the body of his enemies battell, which standes thick together, and is a fayre marke to shoot at; *for the armed pikes once ouerthrowen, which is the strength of the field, the victorie by all likelyhood is like to ensue.

In other words, the pike square was still the moral “anchor” or a battalion, and though the unarmored musketeers by necessity would need to scatter and flee from charging horsemen or a wall of charging pikes, as long as their own pike square remained steady they had a refuge to retreat to and could potentially rally.

This was especially true in pitched battles where early small arms were more difficult to use effectively than in skirmishes and “small war”.

From a translation of In Provas da Historia Genealogica da Caza Real Portuguesa a 16th century soldier named Martim Affonso de Mello gives his opinion on the relative honor of carrying a pike or an arquebus:

Why the Soldier must be prouder of being a pikeman than an arquebusier

He should be prouder of carrying a long, and larger pike, even if it's harder to carry it; and it should always be longer than 26 palms, and he should be prouder of being a pikeman than being an arquebusier; because where there are Soldiers of prize and valour, they're all pikemen; because it's clear that the pike gets advantage on the arquebus; because the craft of pike Soldier is to stand still, while the arquebusiers craft is to escape from one place to the other, and to get under the cover of the pikes: which makes clear that there's more honour in defending the one that flees, than to escape when under attack; since fleeing was never good; and what's more, the strength of a squad is in the pikes; from which we may infer that it's of an higher price a pike than an arquebus, and it's because of this that all the Captains and worthy soldiers carry pikes.