Looking at the parts diagram, that circular bulge on the case where the crack appears is the end-bearing for the gear shaft that runs from the transmission and turns opposite the direction of the PTO shaft. A small gear on the gear shaft engages a large gear on the PTO shaft. Based on the gear sizing, the gear shaft would be spinning 2-3X faster than the PTO shaft with 2-3X less torque.
Based on the gearing and the direction of rotation, am thinking that if the PTO shaft suddenly stopped rotating or got shocked bad, the end bearing on the gear shaft is going to want to walk the way it's shown in that crack, as the suddenly stopped PTO shaft sends a reaction back to the gear shaft, it's bearings, and upstream parts.
I suspect the case, gear shaft, bearings, and possible connected gears/shafts will need to be replaced. That's a pretty serious repair.
Would be good to know what implements you have been running, and if they have proper shear bolts. Clearly, something did not give in the implement or the shaft / shear bolts when an obstacle was encountered, and the shock/load went upstream into the transmission case. I believe this could also be caused by engaging the PTO at a high speed if the implement on the other end had a large flywheel mass to spin up (like a wood
chipper for instance).
It's very likely the damage occurred prior to the catastrophic failure when you noticed it. Perhaps sometime in the past (certainly before you heard clicking this time), a load or shock was applied to the PTO, and it started you down on the path to full failure.
If it was a manufacturing defect, there would be an obvious fracture on a shaft/gear inside the case that looked older or shiny (due to rubbing), or was tied to a void or casting defect in the metal. But I'd think that would have shown up earlier than 180 hours. So my bet is that something overloaded or shocked the PTO system in recent use.