Brendan, I think you misunderstand this part of the forum.
The intention here is to critique a tree, the tree is posted with that in mind. Telling someone to plant it in the ground for three years is exactly the advice someone would give who does that to their own trees regularly. It isn't an insult, it is basic advice that we give often. Now, you may not like the tone here, but you also may be mistaking banter for something worse.
The Tree of the Day area is specifically for us to take apart trees (if we wish to) and bounce ideas off of each other. It is a useful learning tool, and the owners of the trees have full choice to post or not.
If you are bouncing around, maybe you are not getting enough feel for the forum to really make a judgement about either the tree critiques or the tone being employed here.
Joanie