Okay, so now that I have a good reference consensus to work with I'll continue with a question:
Do you find that, in a normal survival world, wood is too easy to get and grow in comparison to it's uses and do you think the added grind of making it take longer and more dangerous would be too much, or a well-balanced idea?
I think that depends, like everything, on the point of reference. For a modpack like you seem to want, maybe it is too easy. From a vanilla perspective, Joe Blow Builder is in the stone age, why make it he'll on him to get enough material to build a hut for the night?
I'm fine with tree growth, yield, and everything. It's even better in 1.7 with dark oak trees. But I like building with a side order of technology & magic. I don't mind the effort, but I'm not looking for a lumberjack simulation.
For me, I use mods to make building easier. In vanilla, I'd have a great idea for a mansion. But faced with finite time, I'd rarely complete it due to having to spend time gathering building materials. It got worse when I decided to get into enchanting and even more precious building time went into helping build an ender farm, grinding for levels, breaking anvils trying to get good tools. I ended up on a huge tangent of tool creation & resource gathering. My mansion still never got built.
I don't want to recreate that trap in modded Minecraft. If I want a ton of materials, I can use automated farming & mining. I'll pay the infrastructure price to admission, but I don't want it to take weeks IRL to get there.