Trying to remove as little as possible as I am only trying to replace the bulbs for the gear indicators.

The DIY I was following was for a <98 where the bulbs are more conveniently located on the trim cover. Apparently this is not the case for 98+.

It looks to me like I need to remove the 4 screws pictured below...

 

That is correct. You will also need to jack the car up and detach the shift linkage from it as well. Its a pain to reach.