Transmission oil pan "bolts" broken?

Hemi is in the shop for regular service (we have neither tools nor space to do the work ourselves) and needs a transmission oil filter change per the maintenance schedule. Our trusted guy refuses to touch the transmission at all, he's worried the "bolts" are or will become broken inside and if I understand right, he's worried he won't be able to get the oil pan back on. And the implication is we may need to replace the whole transmission case? (E.g. if we have to drill out the bolts and pooch the threads in the transmission case.)

Is my understanding right? We can't not change the filters but are we really looking at a new transmission case?