Overkill, man, Im not having a go at you, but it just puzzles me, and you are not the first, not by a long shot, to point out pillowshading out of a situation where there really is no pillow shading involved.
and I start to wonder where people get the idea from. is it a miss conception, is it just a more broad usage of the word for "wrong shading"?
you admit its not, and you did provide with a good head's up about the tree. but I get the feeling that probably more people would come in and say "its pillow shaded". I dunno, maybe I'm hunting ghosts!
Yeah, it's more like gradient-shaded than anything. It's still formless and bland but you're right that pillow-shaded is not the correct term.