I am doing this right..? I think they're ready to top, again.

Interesting, the plant is not so symmetric in its growth. If you wanted to top their you could. There is a lot of inter-node spacing between the nodes as well. I would look into moving your light a bit closer or confirm they are at an optimal hanging height. I like to wait a bit before topping them so I do not accidentally FIM the tips and its a real topping. growdiaries.com/journal/how-to-do-high-stress-training-hst-on-cannabis This give a bit of oversight onto some of the more popular HST or high stress training techniques growers use. I'm not a big fan of fimming, I find it harder to do, I have accidentally FIM'd once and it was neat having three shoots out of one. but not worth it to me. I would get a plan in place before doing anymore topping and try to develop a path or vision on how you want to get there. Best to calculate some redundancies in case something happens and always be willing to learn something new will make you a great grower. Best Of Luck!

Cut the growing shoot, but leave the fan leaf for any remaining node/branch, that node/branch is relying on those fan leaves to make the energy they need to grow. Each fan leaf is like a power station for each node/branch, less leaves = less growth.

Yeah, that is correct. I'd stop taking fan leafs of as these are energy, and its possible the reason why your getting new shoots so late below shoots that should be more matured. Chill on the defo. Let ur girl absorb the energy she needs. By taking leafs say from the 2nd set promotes growth on the next next and so on. So if doing defol look at what of your plant needs mre growth, light to reach and so on. Me personally I wouldn't top there you are only into wk3 of grow wait a little bit them nodes need to stretch the top at desired node. No harm in setting it grow first, it still in early days. Best of luck.

Yes you can chop it there