Put another way, simultaneity is perfectly well defined in a single inertial reference frame, and for purposes of my question, earth and mars can be considered to be relatively motionless.
Simultaneity is not “perfectly well defined in a single intertidal reference frame”. That is just a convention.
If the RTT of earth to Mars is 20 minutes, then we can say that it takes us 20 minutes for our message to reach the rover, and the rover’s message arrives instantly, and that’s a consistent definition of simultaneity.
https://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/chapters/si...
Your link points this out. You can play these games; I don't dispute it. But it's a separate matter entirely from anything to do with relativity, as your link points out, which is itself separate from the classical problem I originally posed. So we are now two steps removed from anything relevant to the Mars rover; I guess we get a sense of pride and accomplishment?