When John worked for the utility tree service, they *had* an arborist - but it seemed he was mostly used to settle disputes when someone was arguing that a tree should be left alone and tried to take it to court. Otherwise, they got their assignments, and they trimmed to the specs, distance-wise, full stop.
When he worked for the city after that, they were trimming city trees, or trees that intruded onto city property/utilities/whatever, and my memory is the guy went around and talked to folks first. My power company does that, but it's a co-op, so might be a different
So I've always been curious - I've seen some trees trimmed one-sided like that for years - decades, sometimes - and they almost seem to compensate in some way - they'll hold up against winds that take nearby trees sometimes. Does the wood grain change - sort of like muscles build up when stressed (though obviously not in the same way?) There have been some I've expected to see down with every bad wind, that have survived for years.
Or were the folks that cut them just real lucky?