I'm a little different because I like running FS @ 120fps so I always go into GE and delete all trees, excellent performance gains. But I did run your update 1.0.0.2 for a while vanilla and @ 2.0000 trees would pop in.
Moving the xml to 5.0000+ eliminated it. I've always edited the draw distances because the render circle is annoying, but I wouldn't worry about it as Giants themselves have said they've always had distance rendering issues.