I'll try to respond as I can
1. There are several types of growth; Height, girth and taper, movement, ramification for example. It's somewhat an unreasonable expectation to attempt to develop more than say 2 of these at any time... and that can be stretching it. If you want the tree to grow thick in girth, don't prune it at all. If you want it to grow tall, remove the side shoots. If you want it to develop movement, wire it, or prune the apex to a side branch. If you want to develop taper, leave low branches, especially where you want the trunk thickest in a relative sense. If you want ramification, you'll need to prune lanky terminal growth and drive growth back in to encourage backbuds and short internodes. That can be difficult to achieve in the ground, and a lot of unnecessary work if you are refining branches that will be sacrificed later.
So, I guess you've figured that many of these ideas are at odds with each other? Hence, the need for a controlled program for development, doing the right thing at the right time. For example, there are a lot of bonsai that were grown freely during early development, and they develop thick trunks but little taper. Then they go into bonsai pots and grow slowly and develop refined apices and branches, but that cylindrical trunk is always still there. One can't ignore the importance of that interim period, in healing wounds and developing taper prior to advanced development if the goal is quality trees.
2. This topic of defoliating and leaving some growth at the tips is discussed in one of the issues of Bonsai Today as a method to develop some refinement in the branch while still allowing it to thicken somewhat. You won't get the close internodes at the unpruned tip. That's an area you can plan to sacrifice later. I believe this method was described for use with maples in particular
3. Blood and bone meal are great for this, unless your trees are vegetarians.
These are great questions and they show you are thinking!
Regards,
Matt