They farm the same either way.
This is most certainly true, and if you limit the killing that you do, you can probably steal everything without getting any notoriety (IIRC you can make 4 kills without getting notoriety). I don't remember but if there's an IF in system you could probably also pay off your bounties directly. Personally I make no difference between anarchy or lawful settlements when I raid, and often I kill the minimum (or no one) as it's faster than trying to kill everyone.
I don't remember the details of Penfold, but I think it's more than possible to get in and turn off the alarms and then steal/download everything, except for in the bar and power buildings without killing anyone at all. Downloading illegal data in the bar area is probably a bit hard, and if you want to steal the power reg you probably need to kill the NPC in the power building (but you might be able to sneak in, turn off the reactor, run outside and wait until the reactor goes off.