I agree and disagree on your original points. I agree that if you are at a farm and generate drops from you personally being there then you should be allowed to take them since the owner isn't harmed whatsoever. The owner wouldn't have had the drops either way since if you weren't there, they wouldn't have spawned. I disagree that you should be allowed to do this in every scenario. Some farmers spend a lot of time on their farms and they wish to keep them private because they did all the work. I kind of think it's selfish, but I kind of don't. It's selfish in the sense that they are not losing anything by you taking drops that you spawned, and it's kind of the philosophy of "If I can't have it, nobody can!" that a lot of farmers take, which is disappointing. However, it's technically their property and they can do as they wish. I disagree with the entire idea of farming anyways so my opinion is probably worthless. My opinion on the upper-hierarchy issue that this brings up is that farming isn't okay to begin with. People ruin the game by farming, since that isn't how Minecraft was created to be played. It's selfishness/greed that makes people create farms anyway, but that's a different topic entirely.
That's pretty much what I was trying to convey. Its technically legal for people to lock chests but if people are gathering things that would not have spawned anyway, whats the big deal. But whatevs, I guess its up to the people to decide how to run their farm. While the game may not have originally been intended for farms, it is utilizing the mechanics in your favor. For Iron farms, I see it as reducing the amount spoiled land to get the required resources. As for mob drops It could take a long time to get some of the items without a farm. But I can understand the frustration for those that run shops. Farms lower the price of everything.
