for real, learning to speak cat language has resulted in most random cats i meet on the street to actively approach me and stick around for a couple of minutes of petting and headbonking.
i mostly avoid it to be polite both to the cat and their owner, but i’m pretty sure i could pick up most any cat and they’d be pretty alright with it, the trick is just to hold their rear paws with one hand and wrap the other around their body so the cat doesn’t feel like they’re gonna fall.
alternatively dump them on your shoulder, but then it’s harder to shower them with smooches.
man our cats are the precise opposite, no particular need for cuddles but they also don’t give a damn if you pick them up and kiss them or shove your face in their belly and motorboat them vigorously.
this is how my family has it set up too, everyone writes a list of some reasonable stuff they’d quite like to get anyways and we just pick a thing from each list while coordinating with each other to not duplicate anything.