It's an incredibly patronizing way to give feedback: "Hey, you'd never be able to handle criticism on its own, let me window dress it for you. I assume you'll be stupid enough to never notice"
There are plenty of ways to deliver negative feedback with empathy, in a non-hurtful way. This, however, isn't one of them.
I disagree. Using a shit sandwich is a way to show empathy in a conversation and have your words heard by the other party.
Contrast:
I think the functionality of the application is very useful. The UI is really lacking, especially when doing X, Y and Z. I really like the Q feature it would save me some time.
Remember the part where I said "with empathy, in a non-hurtful way"?
"The UI sucks" is not that. Neither is the shit sandwich - it tells me that there are issues with XYZ, but it's buried in unrelated information. Are you saying that the app is helpful? That you want Q? Or that you want XYZ fixed? And if you want XYZ fixed, why are you burying it?
"Hey, we have a couple of issues with XYZ. I know, you're currently looking at something else, but if we don't fix them, we'll cause problems for $USER_GROUP". Clear communication of the problem, that you're aware of the impact it has on the person, and why it's important to address the problem.
Haha, honestly, this is so common that when someone at work wants to talk about a product and starts with a compliment, my mind immediately tries to figure out what could be wrong with it.
There are plenty of ways to deliver negative feedback with empathy, in a non-hurtful way. This, however, isn't one of them.