As a policy informed by a small amount of anecdotal evidence, I urge you to reconsider. Your sample is clearly biased; the many, many cases of unsolicited compliments being taken well are not newsworthy. Further, the expected societal value of a compliment is positive despite whatever outlying cases exist.
This is certainly an extreme cases, but negative feedback from compliments is not uncommon. Just read the article. I've seen it plenty in real life.
For example, how often do you compliment women on their appearance? Outside of my family (wife, mom, sister), I never do.
I should note that I have no problem complimenting someone on a job well done (either work or in the community). But basically never on something one can observe by simply observing their appearance.
And I guess for myself personally, I've never received a compliment from a stranger that I've valued.
I frequently compliment women on their appearance. The trick for me is to appreciate something specific that they did. E.g., a choice they made, a technique they used, a skill they have developed.
That's in contrast to me approving or evaluating something, which implies I'm somebody with standing to judge them. It's in contrast to broad generalities. And it's definitely in contrast to commenting on inborn characteristics.
So for example, people are fine with: "I love how cute those shoes are with that outfit." It's appreciation (I love), specific (cute, shoes), it's about a choice they made (buying the shoes, matching with the outfit). The opposite end of the scale is "You're hot," which places me as a judge, is about me getting horny, is general, and is likely to be mostly about the body they were born with.
