I currently have two trees that are dear to me that didn't get watered properly while I was out of town. One lost all of it's leaves but has budded back some. I'm torn between best action for it going into our winter. The other is a forest. One lost all it's leaves and has stalled out buds like yours. The others have a mix of some partially dried up foliage and some stalled out buds.
My experience with my dawn redwoods is that when it sets them for next year, they tend to remain tight and develop a brown sheath. This type forms as the nights cool and the weather turns and feels like the natural process to me.
My experience is if they are green, it indicate the tree is under stress...usually high heat and/or not enough water...and is trying to respond. My experience is when they stall out like that, they rarely grow. The tree will prefer to make new buds...often adjacent to those! But almost as often elsewhere as well.
I can usually tell the ones that will not grow from the ones that will by color. The "healthy" ones tend to be a more light/bright/glossy green that one is used to from young growth. The "unhealthy" ones tend to be blue green and dull. My experience is the blue green/dull ones will never grow. I've had some remain on the tree in that condition for over a year before I finally just rubbed them off. I believe they are dried out, just the chlorophyll remains.
I'll qualify all this by saying that I am in a zone where they can and do go fully dormant. There is a natural seasonal change here that the trees understand and know how to react to in a natural way. I'm not sure how the trees will react in your climate. I doubt it gets cool enough long enough to trigger the tree's normal dormancy cycle.