I do the exact opposite of what most people say to do with my portys.
I pound them with water and inorganic ferts (and organic ferts) while always cutting back hard and get significant growth, even in winter. Our winters our mild though and they stay outside all year.
Here is my thread where I discuss and document them :
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/developing-portulacaria-afra.46011/
This is what I do as well - I don't know that this is the "opposite" of what people say. It's more a matter of whether the tree is in development or refinement.
As succulents, they are pretty much all clip and grow.
When in development, you want to do more grow than clip, and when in refinement you want more clip than grow. This is probably true of most species and sounds like "duh" obvious, but I see a lot of people not really putting it into action.
The fastest thickening and development happens with lots of water and fertilizer, but also relatively long growing periods followed by hard cutbacks. I let mine grow all summer, cut back hard, grow all winter indoors, then cut back hard when put outside again in the summer. So they basically get two hard cuts a year and are encouraged through water and fertilizer to become wild bushes in the meantime.
The opposite happens once a port has a thick trunk and most of the structure that you want and you're ready to refine and maintain it. You slow down the water and fertilizer dramatically and constantly clip or pinch anything that exceeds the desired foliage profile. So you're clipping all the time and giving the tree only the water and fertilizer that it needs to survive - which can be not much at all.
In development, water and fertilize as often as possible and clip as infrequently as possible; in refinement, water and fertilize as infrequently as possible and clip as often as possible.
