Doesn't this tend to come up if someone touches them without permission, though?

You don't need permission to touch somebody. Learn kino. In fact, feeling like you need permission is a beta-signal.

touching without explicit verbal permissions is an accepted part of the flirtation process with alphas.

I don't think this has anything to do with "being alpha". Honestly, the way you're talking, it sounds like you might be a victim of love-shyness, social isolation, sexual repression, or just anxiety about being creep-shamed.

You don't need "explicit verbal permission" to touch someone, just like you don't need "explicit verbal permission" to talk to someone, or shake someone's hand. Touching women on the arms, hands, shoulders, or even back, or wrapping your arms around a woman's waist should just be something you naturally do. This is more a matter of calibration than anything else. Do a search on /r/seduction for "calibration" and look at what you come up with.

may lack cues on whether or not touch would be desired/permitted.

There's an important concept I wanted to bring up here, but I have a hard time articulating it in a fashion that makes sense to people reading. But here's my attempt:

Consider the distinction between "law-maker" and "law-follower". Here you're trying to determine whether or not touch is desired/permitted from the woman, so you're basically trying to determine what the law is or what the rules are. You're assuming that she already has it in her head what you are or are not allowed to do.

An alpha isn't someone who picks up the cues on what is allowed or not allowed; rather, an alpha is someone who determines what is or isn't allowed. The alpha is the law-maker, not the law-follower; he follows Grace Hopper in that "it's better to ask forgiveness than ask permission". He touches women when he wants to because he has a fundamental sense of entitlement.

With women, if you have to ask, the answer is always no. If she likes you, she secretly wants you to go further with her than she would allow.