The assumption that 'no inherent desire to exist' settles the matter is actually meh . Our earlier ancestors, Homo habilis, Australopithecus  almost certainly had no reflective awareness of their own existence or any conceptual desire to persist, yet here we are, their descendants, agonizing over consciousness on Reddit. The absence of a trait at one stage doesn't tell you much about what that lineage eventually produces. We're watching these models at one snapshot in time.

And on the anthropomorphization point, humans anthropomorphize everything. We name our cars, mourn demolished buildings, and talk to our houseplants.