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"Do 100% of people deserve positive feedback?"

Yes.

If someone is working for you, and you have the ability to fire them, but don't, then they must be doing something right. That something deserves positive feedback.

In theory, sure. There's a gray area where you're not quite content with the employee, but the employee is making some progress, so you may want to hold out. But surely in that case frequent feedback is a must (to guide the progress) so I guess your point stands.

And in many cases the manager doing the technical supervising isn't in charge of the hiring and the firing.

The problem, in my experience, is that people will never hesitate to give you negative feedback if your performance is in any way mediocre, whereas doing good things is often rewarded by a deafening silence.

A little encouragement can inspire someone to do better.