reckon you shouldn't get dieback on a maple of you're cutting back to a good strong middle bud, but if it is a secondary small side bud, as left when a large tip bud is removed, the tree may choose to die back passed that little "tube", to the next node
This maple is showing one of those little buds.
Problem is this other side.
It's showing possibilities of a pair of secondary buds, but the central one is damaged.
I'd fear then, a cut back to this node may die back on this half, inviting dieback on the healthy side too.
Hell, I reckon, just as you count Spruce tip buds for health gauge, you can use these buds counts as a "will it die back gauge".
Where, 6 buds and it won't die back passed there.
But one healthy small offshoot bud left may allow full dieback.
Forgive my thought beyond Actual experience.
These useful gauges lessen the "it depends'".
Also, I consider the length of the stub, which is dictated by the length of the internode, as a wick, the longer the better. Dieback or spring growth comes first.
The speed of that wick is dictated by things like internode length, thickness, nearby internode lengths, time of set buds(late growing season pruning) etc....
So longer doesn't necessarily mean more time till dieback, as in the susceptible long thin internodes of my winged elm that die easily.
Where stacked up tiny nodes on an even thinner Siberian Branch, won't experience Any dieback at all.
Something else about how we should speak in terms of percentages for length of stubs left, percentage of the next internode.
Since you can't leave a half inch stub where buds are stacked in quarter inches.
So...we can leave 0% of a stub if cutting to a healthy branch, and we must leave 100% of a stub where internodes are close on thin branches..
As to have as much "wick" as possible.
Sorce