Twolanerider,
The HD counter folks give me the reason behind the bolt theory is that when a bolt is Chromed it loses it's factory strength therefore it may create warrenty problems down the road for them.
Mac, that position from the counter guy should hold up just about as long it takes him to reach over his shoulder and grab a chrome bolt kit from the peg board on the wall.
I can, however, understand whey they don't use stainless in a production environment. Installing SS hardware with high speed tools is a recipe for problem.
Having said that, us doing it with it hand tools is not really an issue. Even less so if you're willing to use a bit of anti-seize during the install. Check out Alloy Bolts (might be "Boltz"). They even sell on eBay for some decent prices sometimes. Can get a full set of polished stainless stuff there, to do everything on and around the motor for $80 or so if I remember correctly.