Ref: Do noindex,follow pages pass pagerank / link juice?
I have a requirement wherein I want to create an HTML sitemap to help users navigate to deep pages. This sitemap page will be linked from several top-ranking pages on the website. I do not want the page to show in search results but would want the outgoing links to be followed. The linked (see the first line) old thread has two answers. One refers to a video by Matt Cutts in 2011 and another by John Mueller in 2017.
Matt Cutts' Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjRGkc__FwQ
John Mueller's Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GNg8R-X8LQ&t=54m51s
Matt Cutts says use cases like HTML sitemaps can have noindex and follow. Those pages will be processed and the links will be followed by Google. However, John Mueller says the links will be ignored in the long run.
Which answer holds today (in 2021)? Since John Mueller answered in 2017, should that answer be taken as the correct one?