@Adair M - your tree is one fine tree. It has one thing that is very difficult to get, the look and feel of a century old tree. Every one of your branches has the appropriate aged look to them to match the trunk. You can't just replace that. It would take at least 50 years for a grafted replacement branch to "blend in". Wabi-Sabi must have age as a component, and this tree has it.
The taper of the trunk is fabulous, stepping down at each branch. The internode between branches steps down successively, While the tree has the flaws you cite, the aged look, the bark, and the whole "gestalt' trump the flaws. I can not recall any formal uprights being posted in this forum that looked anywhere near this refined. You only see these in photos from Japan. I would not cut any branches off. Wabi Sabi includes the flaws, along with the age, and the two are in balance here to my eye.
As to looking natural, Just look at an eastern white pine, P. strobus. An old one in an open field will look quite similar, except the strobus will have one or two branches at higher levels that are unusually long and thick compared to the regular progression of branches in your JBP. You tree does look natural. And when you hide the branch thickness with foliage, it really looks good. Spruces have the descending branches, pines the branches run out horizontal with the foliage slightly above. Your tree has all the traits of an old field grown pine. And it has the feel of great age.
I would be proud to own such a tree. and would strive to mere keep it conforming to its current design.
When Kimura take an ancient century old pine and re-styles it, it is not "just to change it", it is only done when accident, disease or miss-handling of the old masterpiece rendered it not worthy of exhibition, and it is not in a state that it could be brought back to its former glory. You don't just change a tree like this with a century of capable, masterful cultivation behind it. It is mind boggling the decades of work that went into this tree.
My Ponderosa, collected in 2014 might have an older trunk, but the foliage is sparse and loose, and it will need 5 decades of work to begin to have the air of refinement of an old Japanese bonsai. I have every intention of living long enough to see it through, though at 61 years old, it is doubtful I'll last another 5 decades. No reason to not set high goals.
My point, this tree has the one trait you can not fake quickly, AGE. You don't willy nilly just cut off branches that old on a tree. Adair's goal of simply continuing the refinement is the absolute best thing for this tree. Anything else would border on criminal destruction of an art work.
I am not normally given to praising too highly or at length any tree. But those who referred to this tree as "cookie cutter" just infuriated me at their casual dismissal of the century long dedication that at least 5 generations of growers already put into this tree. When it was started, refined formal uprights were not common, and guess what? A century later refined formal uprights are even less common. To do anything other than continue the work of refining this tree toward the design goal set for it a century ago, would be wrong. And more so than any other style, formal uprights are grown as such right from the young seedling stage.
Think about it, some might say they have seen to many "formal uprights", but is it because you saw too many photos of the same handful of formal uprights in collections in Japan, or is it because you have seen that many in person? I for one recall only a couple formal uprights that I saw in person, and most were shohin size. Why do you see so many photos? Because they are striking, have visual impact, and photographers love them. Very few have seen many in person, they are not that common. Its the photos some of you are tired of. Not the trees.
Rant over, I'll crawl back into my cave.
