Grinds my gears when people just hack down something that took 20-100 years to grow without even thinking of consulting an arborist.

The problem in my neighborhood is the arborist probably needed to be consulted before the tree was planted in the first place.

In the meantime my neighbor at my last house wanted me to limb up the conifer trees past my roofline so that he didn't get needles on his car.

One that wouldn't work. Two, those trees would have fallen on his house in ten to fifteen years because his house was east of the trees, and 'lions tail' tree pruning creates a giant lever arm and the roots will lose that battle in the first wind storm after a rain storm. That pattern had just played out ten years prior all over town. Big pruned Doug Firs falling onto people's houses.

What you want is to be able to be able to walk under a tree with your arms over your head and not hit branches. No more, no less.