A sign or symbol only means what a culture or locality understand it to mean. In other words, the sign of piece means the sign of piece in most areas of the US; nothing evil or satanic about it.
There is nothing wrong with exchanging this or other signs, except in cases that have already been mentioned, where it causes distraction. If it takes away the reverence of the celebration then it is beyond the norm. Hand shaking or hugging or even talking aloud can be even more distracting in my opinion.
I personally hate the location of the SOP in the liturgy because of the distraction it causes. Shouldn’t this be done at the very beginning of the liturgy?