It could be the shop. I've certainly had plenty of shops that always seemed to say something needed major work no matter what I brought my vehicle in. Oil change, oh your breaks need to be done and rotors are bad.
On the other hand, if they are really worn, they could no doubt take your money and put it on the machine and dial in numbers, but it won't stay there.
I can't speak for the other item, but if the tie rod ends are bad you very much want to replace before aligning. I had one that was going bad and the most obvious symptom was when I would drive over some uneven pavement my BII would shift direction slightly which I had to correct for in steering. The amount of correction needed always seemed to be out of proportion compared to what I would expect. I knew something was not quite right and was moving. Looking at the ends the rubber bushings were pretty much shot as well.
I couldn't really put my finger on what it was with the steering just knew something was needed and the tie-rod ends were on the list of possible culprits. Then one day one of the tie-rod ends failed while driving. Fortunately it didn't detach completely and wheel stayed pointed roughly in the direction I was traveling and was able to limp the last 5 miles home at 10mph. After replacing them the steering was nice and firm.
I found replacing the tie-rod ends to be easy and hard at the same time, but I had never done anything like that before. My BII didn't have too much rust so getting the bolts loosened wasn't difficult. What was a royal pain was getting the tie-rod end out from where it attached at the wheel. I had asked at my local auto parts about a tool to help with that and person said one wasn't needed "Oh they come out easy, just bang the joint on the side with a hammer and they fall right out". Well that didn't work and to hammer along the axis of the bolt space was so constrained. Ended up having to heat the outer piece really good and hammer. Having a pickle fork like mentioned above would have been the way to go.
As far as getting the tie-rod end off the tie-rod, it was mostly getting dirt off, getting penetrating oil on and un-screwing the tie-rod end out. I marked the original positions well and when I put the new ends in, set them to the same distance and was able to get it all together with the alignment still good enough to get up to highway speeds without any instability problems. I was close to needing tires and this was good enough I didn't bother with a real alignment till it was time to change the tires. After replacing both tie-rod ends the funny in the steering went away completely.