My opinion might be kind of hard to explain but it isn't disease. It's just a normal sign of stress that the trees immune system is concious about. 

Some overly sensitive species don't like the back and forth swaying of branches due to wind. Especially my pawpaw, but it must also include trees like cherry that seeds from birds in taller evergreen forests plant. Which is on par with pawpaws growing as understory trees having been in the wind protection of the higher forest trees. My pawpaw has 10% of it's leaves remaining and it's all due to this unnatural exposure and it's been kind of well watered. 

Another stress response that I have learned that counts allot for me is meeting in person with R Purvis (phd) from Idaho over some results of precociosly early fruiting of a 3 year old apple plot inide a greenhouse. Due to the experiences Robert had in being employed in trials of growing young apples that by the time the trial ended it was proven wind and assumably the moving of branches in trees that were never staked solid to a pole support system, that they could not bear fruit at the same early age as those that were. Which to me explains a smart and fully functional and internally active system is working in all these of some of our fruit trees.

...and one of my mature yet well managed of pear trees has this same look to it too. You can just pull all the leaves off and wait until next spring. 🙂

Btw -although it was a fun Fairbanks AK newspaper headline on "early fruiting apples" for greenhouse trial in Alaska/~2009 at the time, it was not intended to prove specifically the wind delay of apple bearing.

Nice to see your observations too ML.

With all we have available in domesticated vegetable and small-fruit seedlots from the store that are greenhouse grown, and for who knows how many generations, says lots for what's been lost from the wild. If any of wild types ever become extinct and nothing to back-cross to, then it might take lots of time and effort to build those strong outdoors kinds of traits back again.

When it comes to higher level plants like trees that have slow turnaround generations they have slightly different assorted genes to offer which make up the difference. As true perenials they experience and adapt for conditions felt in years past as well as generations past. 

Slowly but surely new tools are unlocking previous unknown secrets of the plastic state of plants and it's prettly involved but also at the same time very beautiful to see how much plants know compared to the little we know about them.

The "feared" lost state of plant readiness is kind of implicated in these discoveries of supergenes (ie. sunflowers) that travel down generations together.