It's true. If you for example went into your maf transfer function and added 20 percent to the calibration, thus telling the engine it is getting more air flow, your truck would run higher in the load and timing tables.
If you pulled fuel out of the maf calibration, the truck would run more ignition timing and show lower in the load based tables such as shift pressures and oncoming clutch volumes and such.
It's why so many people used to/still do, wreck the 6/8/10 speeds, they don't calibrate the engine computer to report the correct torque value to the tranny control module.
The days of a tranny using rpm and throttle position as its way to control pressures are gone, it's all about making sure the trans knows what torque the engine is running at.
That's why a dirty maf not showing the proper amount of air, makes the computer think it is running at lighter load, then it tells the tranny control module the engine is making less power, so it doesn't need as much line pressure and such.