sure bro from1 conisuer to anotha"{pinching and twisting a branch untill you start to feel the insides start to callpse under the pressure of ur finger}"
i use to do the same thing mate, till i notice afew things happen'n (and went did a horticulture certificate's and learnt a thing or 2)
doing this effectively squashes the floem and xyleme tha vascular veins of plants .(inside the stem}
xfloem....feeds leaves buds and colars...
floem.... dispersese uneeded water ,nutrients and hydroscopic water/nutrient's bak to roots and soil.
bringing me to tha point u say..
"{The pinched branches will eventually grow so thick that the plant will treat them as if they were dominant shoots instead of secondary branches"}
your colars do and will thicken up..but i rekon, this has reduced my overall yeild'n'result in tha past.
and they say it can and will promote pest n deseases in plants and....collars!!
i think u can (and i do....now) induce thicker collars in other ways. tweaking n.p.k levels would b at tha top of the list!!
i.e going off a simple proven rule (any horticulturist will agree)
nitrogen N... for leaves and folage
phosphrus P...(THee important 1 for this topic) roots ,steems ,auxilary buds(collars),nodes ...also correct ratios at the rite time
in this senario.. grow can/will affect thickness off steems determining an out-come between short-thick n chunky nodes/collars(correct ratio)
and having thin-leggy weak nodes/steems/colars..booh!!
then later on tru bloom in thee later stages will help thickn buds/yeild up also increase resin/oil content(cannabanoid tricomes)
potasium...k (kalium) thru grow aids vigor and health....then later on , increases bud/fruit size's quantity,quality.among loads of other essntial roles
adding a week to my schedual would annoy me..i do my grow in 21/24 days and blooms in 49/52 days.1200gm's/1600 watts.
i rekon that if u find a decent strain u dont need to minipulate them as much ,keep to a consistant feed schedule
And you'll end up with a Supercrop..!!!!!