Quote -
If you really, really can't resist the unrequested critique, perhaps a private pm might be a better alternative than what amounts to public ingratitude.

I don't think it's "public ingratitude" at all. I think a pm would be worse, because one can dash off a forum reply with less effort than making a pm, and a pm is more directed and personal - so to my mind the forum post is "lighter".

However, I agree with xantor, I've seen trees just as scrawny as this one. It looks good to me.