In roadsalt areas (like mine), I have not found that rotors typically outlast pads.

All that sand they dump on the roads is an excellent abrasive, and makes for some serious gouging.

Years ago, with the soft asbestos pads, sometimes..., but the pads did not last as long or perform as well, so it was a mixed blessing.

Now, 23k is still not very far on a front set, but since your sensors were not on, the may have been acting a bit pre-emptively. Perhaps they figured the brakes would not last until the next scheduled service interval. I'm not judging them either way, just presenting a possibility. Were there any braking problems reported, or just wear?

As chance would have it, I also own a Jeep GC.
They had a massive rotor recall on several models, so that might explain why they were replaced for free in her case. That, or just goodwill from embarrassment.
There are no mechanical similarities between these machines.
For all of the complaints about warped rotors on MBs, the braking problems (and braking performance) on the Jeeps is much worse.

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1986 300E 5-Speed 240k mi.