Has Microsoft E-Tree Been Exploited?

Another annoying factor is I've tried asking about this (even got to a real person) and the only response I got was to check the FAQ. It does now say that you need to earn 50,000 points for each tree after number 5, (so it's now 10,000 for 1, 20,000 for 2 etc etc) which sure, okay, I guess people are moving faster than they expected and they can't handle planting that many, but that obviously isn't the case for everybody as people are still racking up trees every few days and that's impossible without an exploit.
There's also zero information about why everybody using the edge browser suddenly lost all their e-tree data after that date in March (though I have a theory that they screwed up on edge when they rolled out the points update, seems a bit too coincidental that both happened at the same time).

Still annoying that multiple people have raised questions about this and people cheating and they're just like "lol sorry that happened, have you tried reading the FAQ?"

I am based in the US, and I am experiencing the same as you. I see the top leaderboard users still generating a new e-tree every few days (like I used to be able to do) but with the new points system, it takes weeks for me to earn a new e-tree. It's a demotivator and I have also stopped doing all the tasks everyday, considering quitting it altogether.

People on top of the leaderboard, are still planting a tree every 3 days. Very annoying cause for me, playing daily... it takes weeks with the new rules. Are they doing something illegal?? Today is June 14th 2023, and I am based in Europe, Spain.

I used to be able to access the etree from my iphone by using edge app and going to the desktop version. For weeks now no matter what version I use, I cannot get the etree on my phone. I know that they say there isn't a mobile version for iphone, but desktop view has always worked in the past as long as I was signed in. This happened before and somehow I was able to get it back clearing cache but nothing works this time. I can only access via computer. I've even tried going to the website on my kindle(kindle doesn't offer msnweather app) and signing in but etree doesn't show.

Now found that e-Tree sidebar has disappeared on all devices but I can still access it as a webpage on Edge by typing "edge://etree/?sharedHeader=1". Also, I've found I don't need to time points to hit 10,000 on iOS app to be awarded a tree (whether they are actually being planted or not, who knows?).