Why ask permission to do something that doesn’t require permission? I see no more reason why an author should be upset about someone counting the words in their

Why ask permission to do something that doesn’t require permission? I see no more reason why an author should be upset about someone counting the words in their book & assigning sentiment than a builder should get upset about someone counting the # of bricks in a building and assigning subtle color shade differences to them. Neither the author nor the builder has lost anything by it.