Fairest greetings everyone!

I hope your Tuesday has been off to a good start, I have finally taken a few moments to gather some thoughts of mine.

I am so happy I have found this website because I feel like I am in some need of dire help on my family's maple tree.

I'll start with the background:

This tree is older than me and close to the age of my parents house, so it's around 30 something. It has been a favorite of all 3 of my family's dogs, and has been a staple in our backyard memories. Also, as we have a north facing driveway, our only real source of shade during the summer months. It was perfectly fine, and as Bob Ross would say, "A Happy Little Tree". The imbeciles at our power company, whom we would do anything to get away from but they have a monopoly on power, cannot do basic trigonometry, nor can they plainly see that this tree is completely out of the way of all power lines, decided it needed to be aggressively trimmed. Not only is it totally clear, it would have to grow another 15 feet, and jump up the hill to even come close. I was away at college at the time, had I been home words, and quite possibly objects would have been hurled at them to force them out of the yard, which left my parents at home who were unsuccessful at escorting them off of our property. Essentially the entire south side is gone, however the East, West and North parts of the tree remain. I do not have photos on me at the moment, so I will do my best to describe the issue:

I know it's not dead. No matter how many times my dad proclaims it is. I can tell that it's not because it has beautiful leaves on it this year; what they used to look like when it was in prime health. What I saw last year, they were only mediocre, so this year is a much welcomed improvement. Not only do they look better this year, there are more of them, though we lost a decent amount in a hail storm late this spring, there is also a good amount of new limb growth on the north and west facing limbs, and even some to the east. (There is really only one east limb which had neither growth nor leaves). There are several new shoots on limbs that range from a few inches, and probably can be measured at over a foot in some spots. The top is quite barren, (thanks in part of the hail) however I can see new limb growth in the upper section, but not at the very top. On the south side, there is a crack in the trunk, and there is also one that I've just noticed on the east.

As for my questions:

I know this tree is not dead, removal is NOT, and never will be an option. It has been here since my parents moved in in the 80's, and I intend on it remaining here until they either retire or move out. What can I do to nurse it's health so that limbs can continue to grow, and have leaves continue to pop in their beautiful light green color?

As for the cracks, intuition tells me that this could be a part of normal tree growth, if expanding. If not, what can I do fix them, if they need fixed?

What other information can you all use that might be of help to better nurse this tree back to a healthier life? For what it might be worth our growing zone is 5b, and we did remove the old mulch that was around the base for rocks. Not my call, but I was not around when that change happened, and I would not be surprised if I will need to change that out.

Thank you very much for the help, this tree means a lot to all of us, and anything we can do to better improve its life so that it can stay in our yard as long as we are here is much welcomed.