Gedkins,
Another approach is to 'wave link' the component(s) into the assembly, which would allow you to modify the component (match drilling as you cite) at the assembly level. It's very similar to 'promotion of bodies', but is much more powerful. If I'm not mistaken, wave linking is the preferred method over promoting the bodies, which is kept around more for legacy files than for utilizing with new data. Online docs are chucked full of info...
SS