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They might look that way but they aren't. It's why Old growth was the choice basically forever. It's also why we make assumptions about certain kinds of wood, because historically it was old growth being mined to produce it.
Depends on species, but old growth starts in a suppressed canopy. An old growth sapling might be 200 years old before it sees sunlight. It might take 400 more years to see itself as a canopy dominant. Then it might live for an additional 200-2000 years depending on species and location.
This makes the wood incredibly dense and rot resistant. And it simply can't be recreated because it's the physical conditions that determine these qualities.
The fact is that old growth forests which are now less than 3% of what they once were, they weren't harvested. That implies they can be regenerated. They were strip mined.
I grew up in Oregon, it is so sad what we did to our forests. Only managed "forests" are left, with their even rows of stick trees