I know what you're thinking: WHAT THE FUCK?????
But hear me out! Ficuses are an extremely hardy species, able to tolerate extreme amounts of stress and mangling. I have this in an indoor greenhouse where it's absolutely exploded with growth in the last month.
By defoliating a plant (SOME, not all) that is healthy and actively growing, you can force it to produce buds in new locations. You also see the overall shape of the tree's branch structure more easily which allows for easier pruning and shaping. This will give the tree a better look in the future.
This ficus has a lot of problems. The movement in the trunk is too predictable and there are many swelling spots where whorls of branches were allowed to grow out. The trunk also has bad taper, remaining roughly the same thickness from top to bottom.
I'm planning on doing an air layer this year. Basically I'll make the bottom branch into the new trunk and the top part will be a much shorter tree that will fit the style better.
For now, this goes back into the greenhouse to rest!