There are a few items that can be detected by right-clicking in the air. The carrot_on_a_stick and warped_fungus_on_a_stick both work. and then all trowable items such as:
- ender pearl
- eye of ender
- lingering potions
- Bottle o' Enchanting
- splash potions
- snowballs
- Bow and Crossbow if you fire an arrow
- etc.
But only the two "on a stick" items can be detected without doing anything.
All other blocks will be detected when you place them, other items will be detected when you use them for a task, for example uses an axe to strip a log.
During my testing, I also found a few items what is impossible to test for such as:
- air
- arrow
- any kind of dye (even if you dye something like a sheep it doesn't detect it)
- bone
- shield
- all armor
- elytra
- book
- and probably some more