Maybe your _vimrc is not broken. I tested below.
hi CursorLine guibg=
hi SpecialKey guifg=
hi Constant guifg=
set listchars=tab:»\ ,trail:·,extends:»,precedes:«,eol:¶
set cursorline
set list
^D
I could see that the cursor line is filled using lightgray, and "#DDDDD" (constant) is italic. And I did it below to show SpecifalKey.
:map
v <C-X> "*d
...
I could see what <C-X>is italics.
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