I had to let a couple of days pass before I could answer this. But my thoughts are this.
Abe's ability allows him to read the history of inanimate objects as well as the emotions and histories of people. And by "read" I mean more...notice the projections that are there naturally but that not many other people can pick up on.
So going by classifying Data or The City as purely objects then Abe would certainly gain history. As far as having inorganic compounds but still possessing emotions and sentience...I just don't know. I don't know if the energy would be different from Data having an emotion and a human having an emotion.
Guillermo Del Toro explained him giving Abe his abilities in relation to a fish's "lateral line." You know how fish are so dart-y and seem to immediately change direction before they even see the reason why they're changing direction? It's because of their lateral line being able to sort of...read the radar of their environment before their eyes can see it.
Abe's ability would work like that. He radars energy off of objects and people. So as to the difference between reading circuitry that produces emotions as apposed to neurons that produce emotions...I'm not sure. What do you think knowing this info?