These trees are immortal. You can't begin to kill them. Feel free to water it every two weeks in summer and once per month during winter. Let me put it like this, cut as much as you would like to, prune, repot, whatever you want to do, do it to this tree.

A bit of advice from my side, repot it every year and trim vertical growing roots as much as possible in order to get those fat 'legs' to fatten up some more. Those are the main feature on this tree. If you cut the tap root (once the tree has established strong enough support roots) those legs will grow even fatter over time.

As for the foliage, and buds, remove as you see fit. I personally prefer the canopy style for this tree.

Best part, this tree can handle full sunlight 365 days a year. Mine has been outside for the last four years, even during winter.

As for the origin, according to the nursery I got mine from, these are actually two species of plant (Just repeating what I was told) which are grown in 'ginseng factories' in china.

You can also take cuttings the same way you would from a ficus benjamina. Pull a branch downward until it peels off or snip one off and shove it in vermiculite/perlite and compost. Water weekly. Remember to remove like 90% of the foliage when taking a cutting.

As for the wounds, they do leave a mark. Adhesive aluminium foil should help heal those up if they are fresh. And yes, those trunks are normal. These are actually quite nice looking.

Check out the below image of one's 'legs' at the nursery I went to over the weekend.

This tree is supposedly 18 years old.

My honest advice. I would leave this tree as is aside of wiring it to allow the branches to form a canopy. Think mushroom cloud.

I doubt anyone could really do much more with a tree like this and yet, they really do add value to any collection.