Serverless Framework - Compose Error: Cannot resolve ‘${param:xxx}’ variable at yyy

I hope someone can look at this and tell me what's wrong... been reading and beating my head against the wall all day long. This has got to be something super simple...

Here's my project definition:

serviceA/
  serverless.yml
infra/
  serverless.yml
serverless-compose.yml

serverless-compose.yml

# serverless-compose.yml
services:
  serviceA:
    path: serviceA
    params:
      region: ${infra.region}
      integrationsTable: ${infra.integrationsTable}
    dependsOn:
      - infra

  infra:
    path: infra

infra/serverless.yml

service: infra

provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: nodejs20.x
  region: us-east-1
  stage: ${opt:stage, 'dev'}
  profile: serverlessUser
custom:
 tables:
    integrationsTable: "${sls:stage}-integrations"

resources:
  Resources:
    IntegrationsTable:
      Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
      Properties:
        TableName: ${self:custom.tables.integrationsTable}
        ...
        ...
  Outputs:
    region: ${self:provider.region}
    integrationsTable: ${self:custom.tables.integrationsTable}

serviceA/serverless.yml

service: serviceA

provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: nodejs20.x
  region: ${param:region}
  profile: serverlessUser
  stage: ${opt:stage, 'dev'}
  environment:
    integrationsTable: ${param:integrationsTable}

functions:
  register:
  ...
  ...

From the project directory, when I run sls package, dev, info or deploy I get the following:

Packaging "infra" for stage "dev" (us-east-1)

✔ Service packaged (1s)

✔ Ran package on Service: infra

✖ Serverless Compose failed to run "package" on "serviceA"

✖ Could not resolve the parameter 'region'. Please ensure that it is correctly defined in the Compose configuration and that all dependent services are deployed. If the services are deployed, verify that their state is up to date by running 'deploy' or 'info' command on the Compose file.

When I cd into serviceA directory and try to build from there, it's the same thing.

It is my understanding per documentation here https://www.serverless.com/framework/docs/guides/compose that Outputs defined in a service are mapped to other services by way of params

Also if I remove the region property in serviceA/serverless.yml, it stops with the same error at integrationsTable

Clearly, my params aren't communicated to the service. Why?

What am I doing wrong here?

Additional findings I edited my serviceA/serverless.yml file, removing the dependencies on the params on the serverless-compose.yml file. This - not surprisingly - allowed the service to be built.

Then I again tried to build it from the root and I'm still getting the error. My understanding has changed that the problem is not with referencing the param in serviceA, but rather that it cannot be properly resolved in serverless-compose.yml to begin with.

Which leads me to believe, the Outputs in infra/serverless.yml aren't found. Still, comparing to the documentation, it looks ok to me. What am I still not seeing?