Clients are usually not hiring engineers. They have opinionns on management, on what should be done, on how you should work and in which conditions. They have opinions on you being remote or not, on how you should look like, on your mental health (cf. some pieces on whether people on the spectrum make better employees).
Most of these opinions are not grounded and you can not leverage the related tools to improve the work process.
How surprising is it that, given how few variables we are left with, these variables are heavily over-engineered?
Those restrictions you describe are classic hallmarks of a toxic workplace IMHO, and somewhere I would leave as soon as I had the chance. I guess I'm lucky to have that choice.
Most of these opinions are not grounded and you can not leverage the related tools to improve the work process.
How surprising is it that, given how few variables we are left with, these variables are heavily over-engineered?