The continued development of a mature pine branch or tree makes complete sense and seems to me to be strait foreward. However, I think I share many on this sites feelings on very young under 10 year old JBP. I think for me it comes from my tendincy to over complicate things. I am beginning to come to the conclusion that to get a good pine in a lifetime the first 10 years needs to be mostly about getting:
Trunk size and taper
Free growth to chop must be limited to cutting back into growth only so old as that that has needles. This is the limiting factor over most non-conifer tree's and even many conifers that bud feely on old wood like redwood. With these you can grow out for a long time and then wack a big cut to bare stump and it will sprout.
However, as I look at some of the very old JBP in photos from Japan it seems apparent that given a healthy tree they will actually bud on very old wood. You can almost see where they made a very large top cut in the past and the branch to trunk size ratio is extreem. This shows me that many of these branches came after the big chop where perhaps only enough of the green was left to support this vigorouse aftergrowth that they then trained into branches.
There are many different methods to go about this it seems but it is becoming apparent to me that it all comes down to how many buds can you get into that old wood when you are developing a young tree, in order to develop girth and taper in a lifetime.
This in combination with side sacrafice branches in the internode sections. I am still trying to decide weather the tree is ready for summer candling procedures yet. I kind of look at it like growing the bonsai tree inside of the "sacrafice" tree in stages first with perhaps strategic candling and needle pulling on the way. You could probably candle it constantly from a very young age and get short nodes but you may die before it gets to the girth of your hammer.