

I don’t think it’s about anthropomorphizing the tool, it’s about expressing appreciation for the tool. Showing appreciation to a wrench may being as simple as making sure that you clean, oil, and properly put it away when your done using it. The tool is not a conscious entity, but the mindset of appreciation will make you more likely to properly care for the object resulting it being useful to you for longer.
I have been using it for documentation a lot recently. I find tweaking/correcting it’s 70% correct comments to be less time/effort than writing it myself from nothing. I think part of it is using Cunningham’s law on myself.