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You can’t possibly know if someone is committing a sin from a bow. You do not know their intention.

Absolutely I can.

Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

The command is against bowing down before images. Bowing down in front of an image, especially when one is praying to it, is something that can be objectively observed.

It's not an opinion and it's not a judgment call.

Nor does God refer to intention in the second commandment. The second commandment addresses actions.

Therefore if the actions violate the commandment, it's a sin.