Was this guy a little anal?

As others have said, his yard means his rules. If you don’t see any rules, ask to be sure. He is providing a service so you need to respect that.

If you want a yard where there are no rules then set one up. Or you can set up a yard and try to have a rule list near the door but you’ll quickly find yourself adding rules everyday to that list to cover the crazy things the general public thinks is ‘acceptable’ to do like “DO NOT pry open hood with screwdriver”. The next day you’ll need to add “DO NOT pry open door with screwdriver” followed by “DO NOT pry open sunroof with screwdriver” followed by “DO NOT pry open trunk with screwdriver” followed by “DO NOT pry off any parts with screwdriver” along with “DO NOT steal any parts”....... but that’s not gonna means peeps are not going to steal anything.