It's endearing, but I've always found that a bit facile. The idea that even a self-aware rover would want to go back to Earth is blasé anthropomorphism. The rovers weren't created to live in our gravity, or our atmosphere, or our ecosystem; they were created to live on Mars.
I find it more touching to think that we sent them home.
Sure it is anthropomorphism. That is just one of the ways in which a bunch of loser tree-monkeys make sense of a world in which they can send a robot to a different planet.
Humans are suited to our gravity, our atmosphere, our ecosystem, but we still want to go leave Earth.
If you're going to anthropomorphize the martian robots, maybe their ultimate goal isn't to see humans again, but to leave Mars and explore the rest of the universe.
I find it more touching to think that we sent them home.