you are not wrong. “No pickups” on the deed means also no Tomes and Grims.
Which means that the reward you get from finishing the map will be Peasant, Commoner or maybe, maybe if Ranald gives and you find loot dices Merchant chest.
So, even if the Deed reward is Emperors chest the real “reward” will actually be Peasant-Merchant chest, since you can get Emps chest easilly from normal 5 book run…
As a result this “no pickup” deeds are absolutly not worthy running for extra loot… 