"Basically" means "not literally but for all practical purposes might as well be" but in fewer words. Safari's major features, for all practical purposes, are released annually and not with point upgrades unless they were planned features (same with iOS, iPadOS, and macOS) that didn't make it into .0.
Among my iPhone-owning friends, it is common to hear “they didn’t add X to Safari in iOS 16 but I hope they will in iOS 17” or “did you watch the iOS 16 promos? They’re adding X to Safari.” It is expected that major Safari features coincide with major iOS releases.