much rather train a plant than top it, it can put the plant 4 days behind in lateral growth since its trying to build from the point you cut off. its common sense really, if you stress the plant and cut off its leaves, its gonna spend energy needed for building branches(which are also potential colas if you let them get some decent light), leaves, new nodes, etc. this energy should be spent growing everything else, i topped in my first grow and it just made the plant take up more room and it bushed up a helluva lot more. if i were you id strip the plant of any branches(or just use them for clones) and just let the top bud grow out, theres less trimmings and the plant can just focus all the nutrients to one place and light will be getting to every part of the plant.
and speaking hypothetically, if a plant were to be top heavy, itd probably need a lot more root and stem development to hold its weight. this might take longer also since the plant uses energy to adjust itself to changes.
but imo, id just try everything. some people like to top, but i think the amount of branches a plant will put out is enough colas for me as is, it just means more aches in your hand from clipping so many goddamn popcorn buds. but we all gotta learn. maybe try topping a plant and grow the other one out, and see the true difference.
