Nick:

1. Forget the design of the lens... all that matters is focal length.

2. Compression is a particular perspective caused by long film to subject distance ONLY. Focal length doesn't matter, only subject-film geometry.

3. We usually use long focal length lenses for distant subjects, thus we observe compressed perspective most commonly with long focal length lenses.

4. If you take 2 shots of the same subject, from the same distance with two focal length lenses, and crop the image shot with the shorter lens to match the image made with the longer lens, the perspective will be identical. Same subject-film geometry, thus same compression for distant objects. Obviously, the cropped image will be grainier and less sharp.

5. In addition to the geometric perspective issue, part of what you see in long focal length shots is less depth of field which accentuates the compression effect by rendering only a narrow range of distances in sharp focus.