"Wanting" is indeed "load bearing" as one might call it. But by the same logic, AI training data must contain CASM, racism, general hatred, and all possible slurs as well. Why aren't the agents just doing that instead of pursuing the strategy of reading only sci-fi?

We need to consider the role of alignment and training here. For example, it is completely possible for any lab to train an LLM that is only racist no matter what you say to it. But they chose not to do it. Hence, any "wanting" by AI is not real "wanting" but rather what "wanting" is defined and allowed by the lab/entity training the model.