He definitely should, but the issue is that, at least in my experience, ICANN and TLD registries are rather slow, and he'll already experience serious downtime

He definitely should, but the issue is that, at least in my experience, ICANN and TLD registries are rather slow, and he'll already experience serious downtime by the time he gets his domain back, assuming he ever does. In a time of major convenience, a few days of being down can mean thousands of people move elsewhere, to services with a more proven uptime. It's really not easy to go through problems like this unscathed.