@HorseloverFat
As a Californian I find this whole thing kinda amusing. They are beautiful trees, one of my favourite native species, but they are common to the point of being weedy. Specifically, squirrels love to plant them in all of my potted plants and I spend a reasonable amount of time yanking out oak seedlings.
About five years ago at a bonsai fair I was at a training and pruning workshop by a local expert and a member of the audience asked about coast live oak. The expert expressed some vague disgust for the whole species and made a comment along the lines of “the best pruning decision would be the compost bin”.
I was vaguely offended on behalf of the species, I really like them. Nice to learn that people in other places also admire them.