To me, docker compose is simply a more readable way of running docker commands; anything you can do with the docker cli, you can run as a docker compose file.

Just like how a shell script is easier to manage than stringing lots of commands in the terminal, defining services in yaml is easier to manage than adding a million flags to your docker commands.

Of course at a certain point you may need further abstractions, but I agree with you that these should only be used if they're actually needed.