Elsewhere they say we don’t look at your data. Here they indicate, not only we look at your data to verify your compliance, but we may even ask client side applications not held on our data centers.
Weird, if you ask me!
They legally can't say that. Any source?
https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-privacy-faq/
Access: We do not access or use your content for any purpose without your agreement. We never use your content or derive information from it for marketing or advertising purposes.
Apart from that, in general in their communications they are clear that they don’t access customers data, unless ordered by law enforcement/court.
Admittedly, deciphering the language could be tricky.
Did you agree to the TOS?
I expect that this sentence reasonably means, if we want to access your content, first we will email you and obtain your permission in each case.
The AWS privacy policy that I linked (TOS?) is quite clear. Where does it say that AWS has unconditional access to customers data (in which case the rest of policy is redundant)?
It indicates the opposite, although as I said, there is room for arguments.
Does signing TOS means giving them agreement?
Not an American lawyer, but on the face of it, it looks like an objective question (what a reasonable person would regard as reasonable, rather than what Amazon subjectively regards as reasonable). I could be wrong. It's ultimately up to a court.
without the word, you must do it, or be found in breach of the agreement, even if the request was unreasonable.
With the word, you wouldn't be in breach if a court found the request unreasonable.