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Not quite sure what to say to you because your either not open to hearing another opinion or your trying to provoke a reaction from me by insinuating I'm either a tree mutilator or too lazy to do a tip reduction. rather not give you that satisfaction.
I put this video on here because the job was somewhat unusual and I though it might initiate some interesting discussion. I've tried to address your points but you don't seem to open to hearing anything that contradicts the assumptions you've already made from a 3 minute video. I would be interested to learn you achedemic qualifications which qualify your opinion seeing as your so quick to challenge an alternate view point.
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I wasn't trying to be offensive or bait you... and yes, the vid has provoked some good and important conversation.. thank you for taking to the time to make and share it!
And I try to keep as open a mind as possible... I promote and use reduction pruning to prevent storm damage more than anyone else in my area that I know of. Sometimes severe reduction in cases of advanced decay, or long cracked lion's tailed limbs. Other than deadwood, I rarely make cuts on main stems.
So far this pruning has been very successful. The trees have done well. I've had a lot of confidence to assure clients, no worries, the tree will be OK. We had some big winds last year and no problems...
As with so much in this biz, there are many factors to consider. Risk, species, condition of tree, signs of decay or structural compromise, potential for unseen structural issues, size, weight, lean, and distribution of weight in the tree, clients thoughts about the importance of tree vs. risk to property, cost of prune vs remove etc..
Questions that arborists face every day: can/should a tree be saved and if so, how much pruning is needed..
Two phrases I use when talking to clients:
pruning is wounding...
we only need to take off the straw that breaks the camels back ...
The other thing to keep in mind is that there is a lack of science to give us a reliable system for making such judgments. Science has limits.. there are so many factors making it too complicated for science to measure accurately, and the type of factors that are hard to replicate in a lab... and time ... we really need to know how pruning will affect a tree 50-150 years from now... all making it near impossible for science to provide us the understanding we need.
The paper Tom quoted seems not to be based on science. Its just "try it this way cause it worked for us"... So academic credentials don't do as much good as real world experience. I've been in this biz for 30 years. For 30 years, every time the wind blows someone is ringing my phone.. I've also chased a few hurricanes.. That experience gives me a lot of confidence in my opinion.
The influence of the profit motive and arborists taking the path of least resistance must be accounted for. When I got a 75' bucket, I was able to do reduction pruning fast, easy and make it affordable for the client.
