Interesting and ironic story!

But, no. Cutting down your trees usually is not the best option. Many won't come back from such treatment (depending on the species and circumstances) and, those that do, will be considerably set back. This also adds a significant amount of stress. In your story, the amount of stress was less than the amount of stress caused by the unprecedented drought. The key here is that it was an unusual situation. Normally, a five gallon bucket with a small hole in the bottom works well for situations where you can't get normal irrigation to a newly planted tree.

There is really no substitute for proper watering and weed control with newly transplanted trees that are experiencing transplant shock.

If you want trees in an area and can do nothing to assist them, then it would probably be better to start with bare ground and then heavily seed the desired species. If everything goes perfectly, then you can always thin out the density. If mortality occurs, then you will have a more desirable stocking of trees, albeit at a spacing that may not be ideal. Tree from seed are more adapted to climatic changes, although severe drought can kill most young plants.

The root systems of trees can often be in better health than the tops after transplant shock and/or insect/disease attacks.

For example, a 5 gallon tulip poplar we purchased at a big garden center had top die-back after its first winter in the midwest. I coppiced the stem and it grew vigorously from a stump sprout. That was in 1989, and the tree is healthy and vigorous today and about 50' tall.

Our recent very wet April caused my 10 year old 15' tall tulip tree to have a severe attack of fungal spores on the leaves. This is a somewhat off-site planting location with wet soils nearby from a downspout being rerouted to the yard instead of the street and also little air movement below 30' of height. The site was more normal when the downspout drained to the street several years ago. Most of the leaves on the tree turned black/died. Most of the stem and roots on the tree are still alive. I may coppice the stem this winter, if necessary, to get a healthy single stem. In the 9 previous normal years, there was only minimal fungal damage on this tree. If coppicing fails, then I will probably plant a 5 gallon baldcypress.

Obviously, the right tree for the site conditions is very important and I am fighting mother nature with this experiment.