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As people noted in previous thread about it being invalid on thru-axle measurements, it's also invalid on cross-compatibility. All shimano road drivetrain components are cross compatible if they share the amount of gears https://productinfo.shimano.com/#/com?cid=C-453&acid=C-455. I can replace components on my 2015 11 speed shimano with ones from this year if they are also 11 speed.

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All (shimano) 8sp-10sp derailleurs are compatible (possibly excluding duraace, which has a different cable pull). Mountain and road. Almost all 11sp clusters (shimano, sram, campy) are cross compatible with derailleurs. The basic shimano hyperglide freehub will generally work with 8-11sp clusters, possibly requiring a spacer.

If you're willing to go friction (bar end), you can run a mid 90's 8sp Shimano 600 short cage rear derailleur on a 10sp 12-28 rear, with a 1x39 in the front.

It's also worth noting that Shimano just announced the new CUES platform which unifies the 9, 10, and 11 speed drivetrains to make all of the various parts in that range cross-compatible. You already could mix-and-match in a lot of cases with a bit of creativity, but now it'll be an officially supported configuration and they're greatly cutting down on the number of unique parts.

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