Are some people just this intense and I have not run into it before?

Apparently yes to both accounts.

Sounds like unreasonable expectations. You might want to level set and ask is the priority to work efficiently or maintain obsessive level of cleanliness. If they want you to unbox individually and waste a bunch of time, that's their money.

I had a job a while back that had expectations like that, granted it was a clean production room, so plastic off-gassing or untested pens in my pocket was a concern. Lot of extra effort but wasn't a big deal once the requirements were laid out.

And even if it's just the owner being an odd-duck, it'll be less painful to have a full understanding of the rules and expectations.