Love the atmosphere in this version.
I am _for_now_ against the 3D trees, because i'm always for very precise type of tree located where it should be located, with same height and so on. 3d trees, there are very few good models right now, that look good with all time of day, and so far the results i've seen, are very generic and killing the atmosphere of a real place. Unless someone actually invests time and researches where each tree was located and which type/height it is, and finds a good model for it (at least for areas that are close enough for track, and for further areas there's no point in 3d trees also). Plus there is a lodding which also kills the immersion, for example the mentioned BeamNG - the LOD models don't match the shape of each other, which makes everything pop and flicker all the time.
But with all that said, the 2d trees while being great textures, are also not matching the types on the real track. There are pines like that in several places, but most of places it's the tall spruces without branches for 2/3 of their height, rather than pines.
But of course it's hard to implement the variety as in real life as a skin since you are working on the pre-made mapping for existing meshes, and working with a limited set of the textures in the atlas.