Hi Marc, through this whole thread you'll see very specific points made about best practice in working in the tree with cranes from a number of different people on this site, myself included.None of us are claiming that we haven't chosen to do things do things that fall well short of best practice, but it is absolutely critical that the choices you make are based on a sound understanding of the potential outcomes of your actions.
Having a clear risk assessment process before the start of each job that everyone signs off on at the beginning of the job, is just one way to ensure that the whole crew understands what the risks are, and how those risks are to be managed on this particular job.
All of us get into habits about the way we work, little rituals if you like. Some of these habits can be good some can be very bad, most of them stem from how we first learnt to do the work we do...who taught us if you like, who we looked up to as we climbed up.
However personal experience in anything is only so good, it is very limited and not the basis on which standards, particularly safety standards are built. Rather the cumulative experience of hundreds of thousands of tree workers and arborists, over decades, across different continents is the basis for the standards of best practice that underpin risk management in our industry and profession. If we choose to work outside(under) those standards we are exposing ourselves and others to greater risk of injury or worse, personally I find that my work environment is dangerous enough.
The original criticism of MB was that he was presenting the images as a how to, without caveat, and that was a mistake on his part. Like all of us MB chooses how he undertakes his jobs, how he makes each cut up in the tree, it is his judgement call each time...he has the saw. However this seems self evident predictability and control are paramount when working with cranes, as a number of others have pointed out one cutting a significant diameter stem and using the crane to pull the piece off vertically snapping the fibres is not a good idea.
I disagree with your comment that using step cuts or directional felling in the tree will over the lifetime of the climber result in greater wear and tear. For me poor climbing technique results in greater wear and tear, rather than the number of times a climber places a chainsaw into the tree.
I would whole heartedly agree that anyone who uses the internet as their sole source of information on anything (let alone anything as important as OH&S in tree work) is not the full quid.
__________________ Sean  Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran
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