I have renovated 100's of "young" apple trees like the ones in your photos over the last 25 years, and they are young compared to the trees that take the majority of my work which tend to be over 100 years old. Those look to be 40 or so. Don't be afraid to take out well over half of the branching the very first year- you won't kill the trees, believe me. As you suggest, completely remove the largest uprights like the one you photographed specifically. It may be helpful to know that leaves receiving less than 30% available sunlight are an energy sink so those trees are wasting a lot of energy- if they wind up wasting significant light at the beginning of the growing season because of wood removed they can easily spare it. The oldtimers used to do something called de-horning to renovate apple trees too tall and large. they would butcher every branch to about an 8" diameter stub. I've seen this done with trees the age of yours and 5 years later they looked pretty much as full as when the butchery occurred. Like a lot of old time practices, this one is not the best way to go and what you need to do is a lot of branch thinning focusing on most upright and vigorous wood. The less vigorous wood will be more productive of fruit- especially when exposed to ample sunlight and if you spray the trees you can probably have a great crop the first year. Expect it to take 3 years for the tree to more or less have the shape you desire but I consider renovation a project that continues for the life of the tree- at least it is when you are pruning for apples. A good Japanese pruning saw will make the job much easier, if you can afford one. I use a Gomtaro 300MM Silky saw with all course teethe (actually pretty fine for apple work). AM Leonard carries this model. You will be amazed how quickly it can work through even 7" diameter branches.

I am well aware of what modern day experts recommend. I disagree. I have experimented for 40 years on every kind of tree in my yard. An open wound, like all unsealed drying wood, cracks. Water enters the cracks along with debris and causes rot. Bugs find the moist rotting environment enjoyable and take up residence. Next thing you know you have one of those trees that are all hollow in the heart. The experts say the tree shuts the wound off and everything's Ok. Well if you don't care how long the tree's life span is and it just has to live as long as you do, Ok, otherwise, it's crap! Just like collar cuts. Under the right conditions, with a branch at a good horizontal angle, they're great, but not every situation is ideal and when you have three or four branches intersecting a crotch to remove it's going to take close cuts and sculpting with chisels to get cuts that will drain and heal and not rot. Keep in mind, these new methods are designed for todays professionals who must temper perfection with time is money. Sterilization takes time. Reworking the cut with hand tools takes time. Periodically inspecting and renovating the wound takes time. Properly treating the wound takes time and an improperly dressed wound is worse than no dressing at all. If you can come up with a reasonable compromise then you have saved a lot of time, therefore, money. None of this applies to the home orchardist. He can do a little at a time and do it right. Remember, these same experts are the ones who prune maples in March along our highways and byways, instead of waiting until just after bud break which would promote an almost immediate callus to form, and no bleeding. Lastly, fruit trees seem to be about the slowest to heal and the most prone to fungal diseases, so any precaution, no matter how time consuming is warranted. Methods like clean, close cut and wound dressing were developed over thousands of years by the people who developed most of our fruit and nut cultivars from wild, inedible plants, the Chinese and the Italians. Even if my own experiments hadn't convinced me, I'd still ere in favor of the ancients!

Butchering a fruit tree should be done in winter while the tree is dormant, as I advised in my initial post. In the spring after the tree has expended it's stored energy into pushing out new leaves puts a lot of stress on the tree. It wants to start collecting the expended nutrients, sugars, and energy from the new leaves but once those leaves are cut off, it has to start over. That tree did, as you said, push out new growth again so the butcher job didn't kill it right away. Looking at the trees in the background and how some seem to still be dormant and others are just starting to push out new growth, I wouldn't discount the tree yet. I think its great you only like a natural growing tree. In my small yard, even a fruit tree on dwarfing rootstock will grow to 15' which is too large for my needs. I keep my trees manageable for what I want. The local avocado and apple growers have been switching from growing standard height trees to growing shorter trees with more trees in a spacing. Lines of trees that were on 20' centers have been cut to the trunk and another tree planted in between to create 10' centers and then the trees are kept to the 10-15' range for ease of picking. The trees are more productive per acre, and there is much less danger in picking them because the picker isn't 25 feet up in the air. I'd like to note that many of use here advised the OP to first thin the branches out to rejuvenate the tree and re-establish the apple growing wood. The option of topping the tree down to the trunk was extreme and not what I would do first, however it was an option should that fit the OPs needs. The question was if the trees were worth saving and if they could be salvaged. I answered with a resounding yes to both and stand by my answer. The trees can absolutely be rejuvenated and for you suggest giving up on that old of a tree because its old doesn't make any sense to me. We have many 100+ year old apple trees in my local mountains still producing fruit.

Popular advice here in Southern California is to do major pruning while the tree is dormant in winter or early spring, before the buds start to push out. I do minor pruning year long. There are some cherry experts here who should chime in soon with more experienced info. The tree looks healthy which is good news anyway.