Follow-up: I called the 2 best rated local car shops and they both said the same thing: the fluids in use today are much better than they used to be, and Toyota’s are good. They agree with Toyota’s recommendation for the transmission and coolant, but like more frequent for the synthetic oil, e.g., 5-6k between oil changes. The coolant fluid can be checked, but the transmission is a sealed system so one needs to go on faith, unless they’re seeing symptoms of a transmission problem.
Thanks for all the helpful responses on this question.
It is not “sealed”, it has no dip-stick to check the level, so it’s apples-to-orages.
Here is the procedure for 2011 Hybrid Camry, which is likely the same model line:
Fluid can and need to be changed in there if you plan on running your vehicle past 100K.
I’ve purchased a 14-years old Prius, it had fluid replaced 2 times at a dealership by the prior owner, at 50K and around 100K, clear in the maintenance records, same as he had coolant replaced at 100K, as recommended. I’m planning on sticking my nose in there as it gets to 150K - that’s a cheap insurance against repairs.
I have another friend of mine, who ran his Toyota Echo, also with “sealed transmission” into 220K miles before suffering the catastrophic wear on the final driving gear, the rest of transmission still worked OK.
As we drained the unit, the chamber of the final driving gear drained the black goo, it was like a petroleum jelly, not looking anywhere close to ATF fluid anymore, but his transmission dip-stick showed nice/red/transparent fluid for the transmission itself. Has he listened to my repeated suggestion to drain/refill, we would not spend a day in a garage with some beer, wrenches and heavy lifting machinery 
Toyota provides recommendations for vehicles that are driven in normal service, like commuting on highways with a little around town driving. They may provide severe service recommendations, and will identify them as such. The shops with the short change intervals are giving you the severe service limits. They don’t know how you drive your car and just assume it might be severe service. I’ve followed the manufacturers recommendations for fluid changes for decades without any problems. Look at your driving conditions and decide whether it’s normal or severe and act accordingly.
Here’s one independent shop owner’s take on extended-interval oil changes.
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Sorry, I view 3000 mile oil changes as not needed in most any car. Purely self serving advice.
Yes. All manufacturers are. There was an ad a number of years back, I think it might have been Toyota, that showed the owner welding his hood shut because “no maintenance is required for 100,000 miles.” That was BS, of course, and I’m amazed the lawyers let them put that on the air because if you go 100,000 miles without an oil change you’re not going to have much of an engine anymore.
Manufacturers tend to be especially blase about transmission fluid. Probably because it’s more expensive than the other services, and if you don’t do it the car will probably still go at least 100k miles at which point they want you buying a new car again anyway.
My personal schedule is, trans fluid at 50k, then every 30k thereafter. Coolant at 30k. Oil change whenever the maintenance minder tells me to, which is usually somewhere around 7k.
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