Relativistic ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ collisions provide a valuable opportunity to study both the quark-gluon plasma formed in small systems and the intrinsic structure of ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$. Recent implementations of ab initio nuclear configurations in heavy-ion simulations have produced different predictions for cluster-sensitive observables, making it difficult to identify the origin of possible $\alpha$-cluster signals. In this work, we introduce a controlled sampling scheme that varies the compactness of $\alpha$-cluster-induced multinucleon correlations while keeping the one-body density distribution of ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ fixed. This allows us to separate effects driven by the tetrahedral one-body density from those driven by genuine multinucleon correlations. We show that the normalized ratios $\mathrm{Norm}(v_2\left\{2\right\}/v_2\left\{4\right\})$ and $\mathrm{Norm}(v_2\left\{2\right\}/v_3\left\{2\right\})$, together with their initial-state eccentricity counterparts, provide complementary constraints on initial-condition model dependence and cluster compactness. Hybrid hydrodynamic simulations and comparisons with recent LHC measurements further clarify the extent to which the initial-state signals survive final-state evolution. Our results provide a framework for using relativistic light-ion collisions to constrain cluster correlations in ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$.

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• Collective flow
• Quark-gluon plasma
• Relativistic heavy-ion collisions