Let's settle this once and for all. In almost three decades I lived in majority women spaces, observing them various habitats: home, middle school, high school, college, work... When it came seeing them compliment various men, this pattern emerges as a empirical certainty.
HANDSOME -- no woman under the age of 40 uses this one to describe a man she finds attractive, not even my own mother. Far less flattery than
cute when one considers that this is the kind of worthless compliment you'd still get from your grandmother if you showed up for your communion looking like this...
CUTE -- controversial when it shouldn't be. The most socially acceptable way for a woman to hint
"I'd let him lick my pussy," while at the same time still retaining the right to back off if confronted with a backlash from her friends. Xers, millenials and zoomers use cute to denote sexually attractive that is often times of a boyish/androgynous slant making it short lived. Many incels will insist that since women refer to certain animals as cute this should make cute a bad compliment. They couldn't be more wrong.
A girl will call a dog cute, but never a unattractive man.
HOT -- there is an increased blood flow in the vaginal walls. Hot happens immediately, within a split second, it's love on first sight. Unlike cute, it will be rare to hear this one come out of a girls mouth irl. But when it does, hot will be reserved for the striking and the unique that involves a combination of physical attractiveness complimented by cultural signifiers; biker, rock star, athlete, thug, upper class. For the girl, hot is a whole package.