There is a 0% chance these are proofs. They have none of the characteristics of a proof and all the characteristics of being cut from an ad, display piece, or similar. People just like to claim proofs for any oddity they have as a proof is more desirable and valuable than a piece cut from an advertisement or something else. A thinner stock is indicative of a cut.
A proof card is often impossible to tell from an a card on an unfinished sheet. Large crosshairs (if you look very closely, you can see small crosshairs or remnants on a lot of old cards, like much of T218-1) are a clear indica of a proof, but only for proofs from certain alignment stages. There are other proofs that don't have them, but separating these from cards made during general production on a sheet that was unfinished and abandoned are often difficult to separate. For example, the below T220 sheet is a proof stage sheet. We know this from the office backstamp on the reverse, the misspelling in a card that was never issued that way, and is also indicated by the layout with the 2 super short prints having more cards here than are known to exist otherwise. Proofs are typically on the correct stock.
Cards from unfinished sheets often have missing elements, and/or are handcut. A lot of upside down wrong backs are in this category, missing color passes (for the ones that aren't frauds with colors removed by alteration or light), and other defects. Some of these cards bearing a subset of characteristics are probably actually from the proofing stage as not all proofing stages bear direct indica of that stage.
Cards cut from an advertising piece, like a poster or a banner or a store display often exhibit different formatting, are usually on a different and thinner stock, and are often found together in a quantity but otherwise extremely scarce for many issues (album cuts are much more common). Attached are some T68 examples and T96 examples, the only ones known. The T68's feature some design changes. The source pieces varied heavily, cards in advertising are not limited to the biggest name subjects and some were large and featured a large number of cards or even all of them.
These M116's are not proofs whatsoever and a grader is 100% right to reject them as such. I don't see why they couldn't be graded A and noted to be ad cuts.
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