Just about to button up this job. 2008 with active steering. It actually sounds worse than it is. Step one: clean and dry the entire area thoroughly before doing anything else. Adds a lot of visibility, that's half the battle. After removing fan & alternator I tightly strapped the PS pump to the lifting lug to keep it well out of the way without having to disconnect anything.
The bottom two bolts of the stat are easy enough to get at. I found that with the wheel off this was the clearest shot at the top bolt:
It takes a very long 1/4 extension plus UJ to get at but it works.
I've not tried pulling it out with the hoses attached, doesn't sound like a bad idea tho. I removed the retaining torx bolt for the oil lines with a torx bit and a small ratchet spanner:
You'll have to just loosen it and do the rest by hand since eventually you'll be jamming the bit against the active steering stuff that's in the way.
All in all a hoist really helped making small work of it but it could probably be done on jack stands. I'd say about 6ish hours for someone who's done it before, plus obviously however long it takes to clean the muck away first.