If that's a hill you're willing to die on to defend, then so be it, but they do look better when used right. You're also never going to see another title from here on out use 2d X-Wing cardboard cutout trees, so if that's a deal breaker, you might be stuck using 10 year old Assetto Corsa for a long while. Not the worst thing to happen though I guess.
It says you're using a 1080ti. For triples? In this day and age. That's stretching that card out pretty thin. You could kill all pop in/shape change and performance drops by upping that guy right there.
I personally like 3d trees and think it's just a necessary step in trying to keep AC relevant in 2024. AC2 is coming, and so are the 3d trees.