Kenny, from the best I can tell, that's how it it designed. The 2007+ filter is mounted somewhere on the input shaft side of the case, inaccessible from the outside. If I didn't have to return my 2008 in ~33mo, I'd add an inline (cooler line) filter of some sorts. Of course you'd have to locate the cooler lines first, which I was not able to do without popping out a bunch of push-pins and removing the plastic belly pan. Honda makes most of the maintenance parts easy to access, but I swear you could dump a jar of marbles over the engine and none would fall to the ground on my 2008.
Joel