Can't understand what he has against hand pruners though, and why he endorses Corona loppers. I wonder if he's tried Bahco ultra light loppers.

Removing and thinning annual shoots with a loppers is not my idea of fun or efficiency. He must rake off the shoots on the trunk with a saw, which can be quite efficient.

Even on free standing root stocks spur renewal with a lot of crop on 2-year wood has been the norm for years (probably decades). For some varieties almost all the crop is derived from 2 year wood as is the case with Macoun. Even Macintosh has best flowers on 2nd year wood of moderately vigorous shoots.

Yet the literature is traditionally full of guidance that suggests getting most of the crop from long lived spur wood. It is the precious "conventional wisdom".

It has been a while since I've done lopper comparisons when I found Bahco far superior to the competition, but the pros around here still mostly use Bahco and I never, ever see them with Coronas, although we all do some shopping at the big boxes. Still, since I haven't tried them lately, I can't say for sure how they perform these days.

If you only have a single small orchard you are pruning it doesn't make much difference anyway, as long as you get a decent quality bypass lopper.

As far as hand pruners, to me it comes own to which tool fits the cut the best and does the least collateral damage in the process.