So no... This is not a good way to think about/conceptualize a compressor, any more than we would call an EQ a resistor simply because it may use resistive elements to alter the operating point of a filter.
All practical/production compressors in existence achieve gain reduction in basically one of two ways:
1 - Shunt some varying amount of signal to ground, via a passive resistive voltage divider or active FET element
2 - Alter the gain of a gain stage the signal is passing through, as is the case with true tube "vari-mu" compressors or VCA compressors.
Yes, the LA series comps use a photo-resistor in a voltage divider arrangement to shunt a varying amount of the signal to ground, but the device is still not technically functioning as a 'resistor' as it were- a varying resistance is simply one component that is achieving the desired effect. It would not at all be accurate to say that simply altering a series resistance in a signal path would achieve "signal compression"
And of course many compressors don't use a resistive element in the signal path at all- pretty much _only_ optical element compressors use this method.
With FET based compressors it is the semiconductor junction that is being varied by a control voltage, with VCA compressors a control voltage "tells" the VCA what it's gain should be, with Vari-Mu compressors, the effective bias point of the tube is being actively changed to alter the gain of that stage. There are resistive elements used in all the circuits of course, but those are not directly responsible for the gain change.
I would suggest that although conceptually compressors can be fairly straightforward electronic devices, they cannot be so simplified to be reduced conceptually to a single passive component.
