Im guessing they missed the part where the artist said they resolved the issue and there was something wrong with the scene other than the trees. The comparison shots look nothing like the same tree either even if they are so Im guessing when someone knows one engine better than another that will have some bearing of what they are able to achieve with either.
You did, you jumped on the renderer as the cause of the problem and the OP has said it wasnt the case! Its nothing about you personally, its nothing to do with Cryengine… this is an UE forum and youre welcome to bring your Cryengine knowledge to the table but its clear your measly 2 years have nothing on my 15yrs with UE, again I didnt say you were entirely wrong just that your attitude sucked and that you have a clear bias. The engine is optimized but you need to understand whats going on underneath more before you can make unfounded statements about the lighting and shadowing being completely unoptimized for ALL circumstances, if you were commenting directly in regards to foilage perhaps you should explain what techniques Cryengine employs that UE4 doesnt, this way you can add those same techniques to UE4 and give a fair comparison 
http://puu.sh/ttN4m/873b0bb324.jpg
I actually think UE4 has the better fidelity there!