It's possible they know that the ICAO regulations on electronics are really silly, but they're too lazy to challenge it directly. It's easier to just dodge the question and let customers do whatever they want. 99% of customers will not research this question and I expect all airlines to continue ignoring those regulations.

Yeah, obviously the situation here is that by the letter of the law, you can't have electronics/batteries in the cargo hold. But it's not like they're starting up an Airtags Gestapo to search every bag and throw people in jail. Don't ask don't tell, the more of a big deal people make about this policy the closer it gets to actually being a problem in practice.