In my personal opinion, I don't think it looks bad if you are stopped at the automatic gates, because they stop a lot of people due to either malfunctions or the person not using them properly. When I landed at Heathrow a few months ago, the e-gates were rejecting literally 50% of people and forcing them to see a human. So it doesn't mean anything to your surrounding passengers if you are stopped and taken to one side, as loads of people have to do the same.
On the other hand, if you are in a queue to see a human passport officer and are stopped for 5 minutes being asked lots of questions, that looks dodgy. Whereas with the e-gates it can easily be explained away through technological problems, or no one suspects anything because so many people get stopped.
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