the creation of a false mars surface would allow NASA to take as many pictures or videos of the staged surface as they wanted, using a rover that did not have to withstand space.
I'm not asking you to admit that they did create them, only that you admit that it would be easier than actual photos. I can agree with something while believing in it
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I still think it's not going to be easier to make a mock up. There's such a huge amount to mock up, and the difficulty of ensuring all these mocked up pieces come together to form a globe. Besides, it's not just a map in visible light that was collected. There's the Thermal Emission Spectrometer data, which is an even greater amount than the map data.
I'm also not sure what you mean by a need to 'withstand space'. Space is hardly a dangerous place, from the rover's point of view.