How to be certain about HDR

Yes, I think it's typically a particular "look" that a host is saying isn't appropriate for a their challenge rather than a technique.  Almost every shot I've taken for many years now has had some form of tone mapping or multiple exposure technique applied in order to render the dynamic range in the scene in a more natural way.  Whether it's Shadow Adjustment Technology in Olympus cameras, Auto D-Lighting in Nikon cameras, the automated two-exposure blending on a Ricoh, or the dynamic range mode on the EXR sensors in a Fuji (a form of multiple exposure blending), I take advantage of some form of processing help to avoid clipped highlights and/or blocked-up shadows.  None of the results look like what most people would call an "HDR" picture, but it is definitely some form of tone mapping or blending of multiple exposures.