After two days of debugging the Feature Compare tool in ArcCatalog 10.7.1 and reading through this forum it would seem the tool does not work as expected. It seems way too comprehensive. It would be great if there was a "simple" compare checkbox that would just compare the shapes and attributes...debugging all these errors is just not going to cut it. See workaround below if you are in the same situation.
Workflow:
Import feature into a backup SDE from production SDE
Compare Features with Feature Compare (making sure to change the names of the features so they are both the same)
Sort by ObjectID
If Features are different, delete existing backup and copy new features to backup
Expected Result = Features are the same
Actual Result, features are different
Tried a variety of methods, with a variety of what I consider errors...
FeatureClass: ObjectID 21 is different for Field Shape (Base: Geometry, Test: Geometry).
SpatialReference: Spatial References have different M precision (Base: 0.000000000000, 1.000000000000, Test: -100000.000000000000, 10000.000000000000).
SpatialReference: Spatial References have different Z precision (Base: 0.000000000000, 1.000000000000, Test: -100000.000000000000, 10000.000000000000).
So either the tool does not work properly or the documentation is missing key information for users to use this tool properly.
Similar Questions with no real answers
Feature Compare tool -- why is it comparing geometry?
Feature Compare explained
Feature Compare Results
Feature Compare Tool not working
feature compare results show fields mismatch but they are identical
Workaround -
I am exporting to GeoJSON (with esri2open because the built-in tool Features to JSON tool is not 100% consistent), hashing the files and comparing the hashes, super simple and works 100% of the time.