After reading a few textbooks on Quantum Field Theory there's something that's always struck me as bizarre. Take a scattering process in QED like $\gamma$,e$^-$ $\rightarrow$ $\gamma$,e$^-$. The leading order contribution to this process starts at tree-level. If we assume the incoming photon is randomly polarized, that the incoming electron has a random spin, and that we are insensitive to the photon's final polarization/the electron's final spin, then the differential cross section for $\gamma$,e$^-$ $\rightarrow$ $\gamma$,e$^-$ in the laboratory frame where the electron is initially at rest is given by the Klein Nishina Formula.

The thing is, I constantly read in various textbooks that the tree-level contribution to a scattering process corresponds to the contribution of the 'classical' field theory to said process, and that truly 'quantum' effects begin at next to leading order (almost always involving loop diagrams). But with a process like $\gamma$,e$^-$ $\rightarrow$ $\gamma$,e$^-$, the tree-level contribution contains effects that are simply not predicted by classical electromagnetism. The differential cross section predicted by classical electromagnetism is equal to $r_e^2(1+\frac{\cos(\theta)^2}{2})$, whereas the differential cross section predicted by the Klein Nishina Formula has a dependence on the energy of the incoming photon, which goes reduces to the classical differential cross section as planks constant goes to zero. So clearly there's something predicted in the tree level cross section that is missed by classical electromagnetism. So the idea that 'quantum' predictions begin at next to leading order seems erroneous at best.

Am I completely off here? Is the idea that 'quantum' effects start at next to leading order only meant to be taken as a heuristic way of thinking about things? Or am I just overthinking things?

After reading a few textbooks on Quantum Field Theory there's something that's always struck me as bizarre. Take a scattering process in QED like $\gamma$,e$^-$ $\rightarrow$ $\gamma$,e$^-$. The leading order contribution to this process starts at tree-level. If we assume the incoming photon is randomly polarized, that the incoming electron has a random spin, and that we are insensitive to the photon's final polarization/the electron's final spin, then the differential cross section for $\gamma$,e$^-$ $\rightarrow$ $\gamma$,e$^-$ in the laboratory frame where the electron is initially at rest is given by the Klein–Nishina formula.

The thing is, I constantly read in various textbooks that the tree-level contribution to a scattering process corresponds to the contribution of the 'classical' field theory to said process, and that truly 'quantum' effects begin at next to leading order (almost always involving loop diagrams). But with a process like $\gamma$,e$^-$ $\rightarrow$ $\gamma$,e$^-$, the tree-level contribution contains effects that are simply not predicted by classical electromagnetism. The differential cross section predicted by classical electromagnetism is equal to $r_e^2(1+\frac{\cos(\theta)^2}{2})$, whereas the differential cross section predicted by the Klein–Nishina formula has a dependence on the energy of the incoming photon, which goes reduces to the classical differential cross section as Planck's constant goes to zero. So clearly there's something predicted in the tree level cross section that is missed by classical electromagnetism. So the idea that 'quantum' predictions begin at next to leading order seems erroneous at best.

Am I completely off here? Is the idea that 'quantum' effects start at next to leading order only meant to be taken as a heuristic way of thinking about things? Or am I just overthinking things?