In Audley End's case, the percentage going anywhere other than Cambridge or Stansted is probably tiny, and those passengers can easily be accommodated on Greater Anglia.
Not forgetting that more people may actually be attracted to XC for longer distance journeys if the trains are less clogged up with people only doing local journeys.
While this is true, it also goes for Cambridge or Ely to Stansted Airport just as much as it does Audley End to Stansted Airport or Cambridge. The number of people for Stansted Airport from March and Peterborough is small though, and the numbers from Stamford, Oakham, Melton Mowbray, Leicester, Nuneaton, Coleshill Parkway and Birmingham all together are also small. So if you were to take this attitude you'd withdraw all CrossCountry services between Cambridge and Stansted Airport.
Of course, that
would save significant train crew resources and allow more capacity to be redeployed along the busiest parts of the route, so perhaps it is in fact the more sensible course of action.
Can't comment on Winchester but 1H14 definitely doesn't stop at Wilmslow in practice.
These sorts of changes are certainly interesting, because without the pandemic they'd have been impossible. Same if we'd gone back to the "old way" as some predicted / encouraged / desired.
If the early 2020 number of office commuters returned it would effectively have to pick people up at Wilmslow because there's simply no alternative - the 0748 Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly is realistically four cars max, which it has, and definitely couldn't accommodate the hundred or more people who would have boarded the CrossCountry at Wilmslow. As it stands there's not an enormous need to stop because the 0748 has free space even after Levenshulme.