A lot of people won't touch electrical, and the problem with modifying the wiring is you need to be able to clearly document or show what was changed in case it needs to be reversed later.

This is ugly, but it's immediately obvious how to reverse it to anyone who looks at it. And that pipe wrench probably wasn't being used anymore anyways. I doubt they tapped the holes, those are probably just self-tap screws that both drilled the hole and cut the thread as they screwed in. No one will call this an elegant solution, but if it works it works.