I delivered furniture, had similar experience. I worked alone, made me take off shoes, but could not take wheels off dolly.
Lady of the house did not realize until I had dragged across snow white carpet how ludicrous her request appeared.
Oh well , many funny stories from those days.
I work in wrought iron for spiral and swept stairs, entryways, balconies, and stuff like that - between power plant repair jobs. It is funny being the only person in the house wearing steel-toed boots, welding and grinding and burning iron above a marble or granite floor and expensive carpet ... when everybody else is tiptoeing around wearing their socks.
Floor protection is a hassle, but (most of the time) nothing burns.
Friends had built a new house with pink carpeting - builder was sending workers over to fix something after they moved in. Wife asked if he could have his guys remove their shoes so as to not track dirt - he agreed, but pointed out that he couldn’t guarantee that their socks would be any cleaner than their boots were.
(Did I mention that this was in Florida???)