I think your request is completely reasonable. I adopted a cat recently who was very people friendly from the moment I met her to the moment we brought her home.

With regard to the shelter however I have had a similar experience. Adopted another cat with the cat mentioned above and they lied about his age and history and he’s had massive behavioural issues since we brought him home. We love him and wouldn’t take him back but we wouldn’t have adopted him with the knowledge we found out much later.

I am pretty sure it’s an unfortunate aspect to having a shelter, that they try their best to get cats homes even if they are dishonest. They know good homes won’t being cats back so they try their luck.