The source of that compression effect is the relative distances top the sensor of different elements in the picture - so a result of long vs short range, rather

The source of that compression effect is the relative distances top the sensor of different elements in the picture - so a result of long vs short range, rather than long vs short focal length. At a long range, your nose is 1% closer to sensor than your eyes are. At a _really_ close range, it's maybe 50% closer to the sensor than your eyes are. Given a fixed range, though, you can achieve the same look by using a long lens, or by cropping a shot taken with a shorter lens. The thing is, distance and focal length aren't independent. People don't usually shoot long lenses in close quarters, and don't shoot distant subjects with wide angle lenses, we just tend to fill our frames with the subject. That means the compression effect is technically not related to focal length, but in practice ends up showing up more when using longer lenses.