The article is peppered with words such as monster and Frankenstein regarding
DEXTRE, who as far as I can tell has no sentience nor was even programmed by
an evil genius scientist to attack the astronauts and take over the ISS.

In fact it sounds like the crew had enough trouble just getting the robot activated.

Or is this some astronaut ploy to keep from losing their jobs by making DEXTRE
sound and look like a monster?

Other than outright colonizing, I think DEXTRE will become another example of
how much easier, cheaper, and more efficient it is to have machines doing the
work and exploring in space.