It would be nice if I could get to the end of this post without a bunch of debate in the middle. I will make a about four posts over the next half an hour and I would appreciate you following along but hold comments till I'm finished and then you can rip it to shreds while I hide in the shark tank!
I don't know wnything about the species so I can't comment about that. I have no idea about its growth habits or how it trunks up over time.
Since you tell me your in the Hort trade I'm sure some of this stuff you already know. But since others will read this I will repeat it here for others. If a large bonsai is wanted there are two junipers that grow large very fast. San Jose and Prostrata. san Jose is best for a chunky trunk but prostrata will get lots of curves which is what most people want. Full size Procumbens is good too. but hard to find. Not "nana" but the full size species. In Japan it is called "Sonare". It grows along the ground like a snake and makes wonderful bonsai when it can be turned upright. Kimura has used it alot and grafts shimpaku on it.
So big tree. If thats choice one, bad news.
Lets look at the tree. I'm using this view thru out for no particular reason. I looked at the other views and if there was a better one I would use it.
The tree has a pleasing little crook at the base which is good. It adds some interest. The trunk moves up and some back and forth has been introduced. It is very contrived and looks super man made. Movement should be curving with a natural look to it. Nature really never makes an abrupt 45 degree turn for no reason. Always keep that in mind. after the first bend it comes up and then sharply turns back the other way, almost equal in length dividing the tree into perfect thirds. Again this is not natural.
The two bends make an unusually straight section in the middle of the tree.
The branches are devoid of any green things here. I have no idea if they were removed and why that would be so. It would benefit greatly by reducing each branch by half, but there is nothing to cut to. This is a beginner mistake I see al the time in workshops. many time the instructor will just tell everyone to "clean them up". What he means is to clean the crotches and prune away dead stems. Not take all the foliage off the branches leaving pom poms out on the ends. We leave nothing to reduce to.
The tree has been wired, and some foliage pads organized.
What we have here is the good ole 1,2,3 back branch configuration. Very two dimensional with the three main foliage tufts making the tree in a flat plane and a bar branch bent out the back making a back branch for depth. (in blue) Now let me stop here for a minute. This is a pretty good first go at a tree. With some detail wire and some moving around it would be nice, if you wish to settle.
Who wants to settle ..I don't.
So one of the things that those that have known me for the last 10,000 posts is that I always say to look for the best smallest tree in the material. sometimes that means cutting off 75 percent of the tree just to get the one small gem. layers, cuttings, and all that jazz, do them if you must but I don't have time and they just lose up my backyard with a bunch of unsightly pots with 50 cent cuttings in them.
So what if we cut the whole damn tree of at the first branch. Left the one coming off to the left. It has a good taper coming off the main trunk and it has a lot of divisions from what I could tell in the earlier picture. All of the divisions will become a branch. I have no way to demonstrate that here but could show you in detail if you were a student. What if we took that trunk with the branch moving off to the left wired it hard with maybe no. 10 or even maybe no. 12 copper. that would be all we would need. bend that puppy back on itself to the right moving the apex back over the root base to add balance.
Wire out those small branches down to the last bit of green with 2mm aluminum wire and fan them out real nice. I know I could do it and I know others can too. Give it a year or two and work on it. then you can pot it up when its in peak condition.
Now this is just a small shohin type tree, but it is a direction one can go from what you called "butchered". If you wish to go the big route just remember it will take about 15 years and letting whips grow (runners) is not the way to build a trunk for bonsai. Anyone that tells you that is bull shit. Junipers grow into monster trunks with twists and turn all the time in yards that get pruned every couple of weeks with hedgers. Its what makes a compact fat trunk. If you just let it go you will get runners and it will get fat, and about 5 feet long and about 1 inch around. thats it!
Hope you make this into something, I wouldn't do it now you already used about 7 lives this year. Cheers dude.