ladybug3

I bought a deWalt radial saw in 1960 when I was restoring an old house in New England. It came with a shaper head and knives for glue joints, raised panels, and cabinet door lips. On the rear of the motot it had a collet for router bits and a 9" sanding disk. All of the attachments were used throughout the remodel, and everything worked perfectly. I still have this saw, and it still performs all of these functions, plus any compound miter you choose to make.
I ran a furniture manufacturing company for many years, and as several of your other readers have noted, you can cut off a finger on lots of different machines if you are careless. You can buy saw blades with a 5 degree negative tooth pitch; these are made for radial saws and won't "walk" across the board the way a blade made for a table saw will.
Cutting a mortise for a mortise and tenon joint is a heck of a lot safer on the radial saw than with a hand held plunge router, and quicker to set up. My home shop, like most home shops doesn't have a dedicated rough mill, hence no cutoff saw, but cutting the defects out of a 12' 1 common hardwood board is a lot quicker and safer on a radial saw than with a table saw. Of course a compound miter saw works for that too.
In summary, a compound miter saw will cross cut like a radial saw, but it won't perform any of the other functions that make a radial saw so useful. I suppose a valid comparison would be to say that hand router mounted under a table is as good as having a nice 10 hp overarm router. No contest.