Okay this has a 2-part answer!
During veg, or if your plant is a dedicated mother, yes, go for the #1 strongest tip- that usually is the top growing highest tip. It's the one that gets the best light.
If you are planning to flower within 2 weeks from taking cuts, LEAVE the top shoot, and preferably any other shoots that you think are super healthy and will produce fat buds. Removing them changes the hormone concentration in the tissues and basically confuses the plant.
So if you are about to FLOWER, then take them from lower branches.
You can cut your clone anywhere along the branch that you like. I choose my cut location not only to give a good clone, but to 'set up' the plant to re-grow cuttings- basically, a nice pruning job that happens to give me clones! lol. And I also try to leave as many big healthy fans as possible.
Again, the technique is a little different when you are about to flower. Removing an entire branch is fine, but as always you need to look at the whole picture- is that branch even useful tot he plant, or is it scruffy and weak? Will leaving part of it encourage the plant to waste energy trying to set popcorn buds down there? Yes? Off it goes!