. . . and I may be wrong . . .
That is so weird, Evan. Maybe it's because whenever I cut off the large stems of my bananas they had already fruited and finished growing any more leaves. Looks like some of yours still had growing tips down inside the trunk.
A monocot shouldn't keep growing if the growing tip is cut off. So maybe with bananas it DOES matter how low down you cut, but there's possibly no way to know where the growing tip is.
