It is worth noting that people in the past running with trees on medium or high would have had a similar draw distance to now.
The reduced draw distance is compared to the old ultra, or in particular the old high or ultra with one of the tree distance mods (that no longer work) installed.
Those mods pretty much doubled the draw distance (even on medium settings to save FPS). You got to set your trees to high or medium to get less trees spawning close by and trash your frames BUT could extend the distance they spawned with a mod that extended draw distance without changing the number of trees spawning close by.
The OP seems to be saying, “compared to my old settings I notice no difference”. that may well be true if he was not using a draw mod to extend the draw distance, especially if he was previously on high.