I am certain that a lot of crocodile tears were shed about having to cut down all of those trees. If there's a profit to be made - or lost - some people will take any excuse.
If you cut down the trees before the blight got bad, at least you got one more warehouse full of wood before the party was over. I'm sure it was a bit like the run on toilet paper two years ago.
A counter thought is that this action reduced the odds of finding trees that had natural immunity.