It is a matter of semantics and being precise in the terms. If you cut "the top off" of a tree, the tree does not die. Nor does the "top" grow back. Instead a new branch will grow and direct itself up, thus creating a "new top".
But all that aside, it still strikes me and probably others as asinine to protest the destruction of the trees by causing damage to them.
We don’t have many redwoods in the Midwest, but cutting the top out of a cedar will permanently deform it.