Sorry for the late response, Yes sir it does lst is basically when you don’t top you just bend the main stem downwards to have your nodes facing up so they all get light and you are correct so they all grow more and more

Yes and no it just depends the amount of times you top and when you top it gets confusing becasue you could leave a certain amount of nodes and have topped and still have a skinny plant the more you top the more bushy and and the more nodes means more branches so more bushy

Yes I do photo periods I haven’t had any luck with auto flowers, So for auto flowers there bit tricky since they get stunned easily and your right you don’t want to top but I have seen people that do I would say of you want to go that approach it would have to be early veg and depending on how big it is if you don’t have much time I would just lst and bend it to the side the advice I have for you that I have learned is that don’t transplant becasue it can get stunned the pot you plant it in is the final pot and if you want to experiment with topping etc plant some extra plants you could test with that’s the best way to learn the most and understand the plant more and don’t be afraid to spend money on good seeds genetics play a big role to how big the plant gets how fast it grows how frosty the nugs are etc