As an analogy, consider it like joining a gang. If you're truly an independent free spirit, you truly don't belong in a gang. This may be not the right path for you. Gangs have rules, often even stricter and more harshly punished ones than the actual laws they're breaking. If that's surprising, you probably don't understand how gangs work. In doing the dangerous stuff they do, they also need to protect themselves (and their shit) from a lot of just-as-dangerous people in addition to the lawful people who want them shut down and imprisoned. They are not places of freedom, they are places of ultraviolence.

That said, if you happen to be the sort of person who wants, say, some of the really interesting drugs the gangs are involved in trafficking, well then, you either have to join the gang, or stay on their periphery and keep a few loose connections with them without ruffling their feathers.

Obviously a private tracker is not quite as violent and high stakes as a gang, but some of the same basic principles more or less apply. You want their loot, you gotta follow their rules, or at least make a plausible attempt to. Don't draw attention to yourself. Get in, get your stuff, and leave. If you don't want to join the gang, don't make a scene, don't make friends, just keep your eyes open, do your business and then go home and enjoy what you found. It doesn't have to be that complicated, but don't oversimplify it either.