I've been in my current house for almost 20 years and I never reached out to my neighbors. And almost every house around me has changed owners at least once while I've been here, and I've only had one neighbor ever reach out beyond a friendly "Hi!" at the mailbox... And I've done plenty of tree cutting/planting and landscaping... Multiple neighbors even put up, or replaced, a fence without talking to me. (All on their property.) So I'm not sure what his big deal is.
Though it does seem that the contractors might have needed to practice better dust mitigation...