If the Gimbal were a glare from another aircraft it must have been squawking to transponder

From my experience in the military (not US but NATO), I know that military and commercial aircrafts must respond to transponders like IFF (identification friend or foe) for identification.

If an aircraft were not responding to transponders it could be considered a potential threat and fighter jets should be sent to intercept and visually identify it.

Do you know if this fact was taken into account analyzing the Gimbal case?

If not, someone should ask that question, I guess.

Edit:

I’ve asked Ryan Graves on X but I don’t know if he will bother to answer me:

https://twitter.com/MoarCreative/status/1755348891577266441