according to code https://github.com/openshift/console/blob/master/frontend/packages/console-telemetry-plugin/src/listeners/segment.ts#L114-L124     
it seems the message `console-telemetry-plugin: telemetry disabled - ignoring telemetry event:xxxx` should be shown when telemetry is disabled and debug is on

4.16.0-0.nightly-2024-05-21-221942    

 Always   

1. disable telemeter client and turn on telemetry debug
$ cat ~/test-files/disable-telemeter.yaml 
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: cluster-monitoring-config
  namespace: openshift-monitoring
data:
  config.yaml: |
    telemeterClient:
      enabled: false
$ oc create -f ~/test-files/disable-telemeter.yaml
$ oc get cm cluster-monitoring-config -n openshift-monitoring -o yaml
apiVersion: v1
data:
  config.yaml: |
    telemeterClient:
      enabled: false
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2024-05-23T07:08:35Z"
  name: cluster-monitoring-config
  namespace: openshift-monitoring
  resourceVersion: "166718"
  uid: a4469ec8-1d2a-474f-b476-b9bc223ff252

$ oc get cm console-config -n openshift-console -o yaml | grep telemetry -A10
    telemetry:
      CLUSTER_ID: 67a00652-90b8-4e9b-9c8f-d5444979d996
      DEBUG: "true"
      SEGMENT_API_HOST: console.redhat.com/connections/api/v1
      SEGMENT_JS_HOST: console.redhat.com/connections/cdn
      SEGMENT_PUBLIC_API_KEY: BnuS1RP39EmLQjP21ko67oDjhbl9zpNU
      TELEMETER_CLIENT_DISABLED: "true"
kind: ConfigMap

2. open console URL and inspect window.SERVER_FLAGS.telemetry values
CLUSTER_ID: "67a00652-90b8-4e9b-9c8f-d5444979d996"
DEBUG: "true"
SEGMENT_API_HOST: "console.redhat.com/connections/api/v1"
SEGMENT_JS_HOST: "console.redhat.com/connections/cdn"
SEGMENT_PUBLIC_API_KEY: "BnuS1RP39EmLQjP21ko67oDjhbl9zpNU"
TELEMETER_CLIENT_DISABLED: "true"
3. turn on browser 'Debug' level logs and check the logs 

we can only see `console-telemetry-plugin: received telemetry event:  xxx` messages    

since telemeter client is disabled and telemetry debug is on, we should show `console-telemetry-plugin: telemetry disabled - ignoring telemetry event: xxxxx` message