Purchasing Carbon Offsets = pay to pollute

This article describes a new example of an old environmental scam, the purchase of so-called 'carbon-offsets' in exchange for the right to emit CO2.
https://www.pressherald.com/2018/08/12/nature-conservancy-sees-opportunity-to-fight-climate-change-in-the-maine-woods/

Trees/forests do absorb and sequester carbon, and what's more they are the sustainable planetary mechanism that has evolved to do so throughout the history of life of Earth. So what is the problem with supporting this natural sustainable mechanism by paying to protect it?

The problem is that paying to offset carbon emissions by protecting forests/trees assumes that the climate will be saved by either protecting trees/forests or cutting CO2 emissions, but that both aren't necessary for a sufficient resolution of CO2 buildup.

Let's take a step back and think about the natural long-term carbon cycle for a moment: forests/trees and other biological life absorbs carbon and energy from the sun; then it gradually sediments into fossil fuels. The forests and their ecology are absorbing the carbon AND the fossil fuels are continuing to store (some of) their carbon after they die.

If you keep the trees/forests to 'offset' the burning of the fossil fuels, you are still disrupting the natural carbon cycle that absorbs the carbon and keeps it underground when humans don't dig it up and burn it.

Maybe if forests/trees are protected AND deforested land is reforested to the levels that existed before deforestation began, the planet will go back to absorbing and sequestering CO2 at natural (pre-deforestation) levels. But shouldn't we still also continue to reduce the amount of carbon extracted and burned as well?

Maybe eventually after a long period of reforestation and leaving fossil fuels alone, some sustainable harnessing of the natural carbon cycle by humans for our energy applications will be tolerable, but before that happens, there has to be a lot of restoration of pre-industrial fossil fuel levels, which could take a very VERY long time.