But, you just contradicted yourself.
If the "HOW" matters, and your nod to scientific plausibility does not in any way actually address "HOW", then by your own definition, it's not SF.
So, how am I being insulting to the concept of SF by insisting that your telepathy in a setting be actually given any sort of explanation as to how it works? After all, in Star Trek, there is no explanation for how telepathy works - it just does. Which is perfectly fine, by the way. SF in no way actually HAS to explain the how's, that's something that
@Minigiant and apparently you have insisted on.
By your definition, most SF, like Doctor Who, isn't actually SF.