Never once have I heard someone open up to the person they have feelings with this way - never once have I heard it end well.

I sure have. The number of times it has had positive results far outnumber the number of times it has ended badly in the cases I know of. That's not to say it is ever a good idea, (since that doesn't take into account the benefits vs the risks and consequences) and I definitely agree with your point of view that it is no ones business but our own. But, this just goes to show that personal experiences have a tendency to be a biased and unreliable way to draw conclusions about how the world works.