I suspect the agents who make the evaluation at the gate are even less experienced photographers than you are.

So the question is not whether your lenses are electronic, but whether the agents have been instructed (or decide on their own) that since some lenses are electronic and they don't know how tell them apart, they won't allow any lenses on board. Or whether they have no clue that lenses can be electronic, and so they allow all lenses board. Or whether it varies from one agent to the next (because they haven't been trained on this specific question).

If an agent insists that your lens may be electronic, I doubt you can argue against that (without taking apart and destroying the lens, at least).

The electronics that exist in some lenses are triggered by signals from the camera body, and may do things like assist in the auto focus or do vibration reduction stuff. If you know your lenses don't have VR, then that is factored out. If your lenses are manual focus only, then they pretty definitely aren't electronic. But again, it's what the agent decides, not what is the actual fact, that matters.