Paul, I am so confused as to that also. In all Brazilian literature that I have read says to on the first year to choose the stronger shoot from the base, and that should be the main trunk, in other words, the rooted cuttings and other suckers would be cut off.  I am yet to have to courage to do such pruning, but now that I have a few of same variety I am going to do that to one of them, so next year I will be able to compare.

there is a man named Bill in Seattle. He grows lots of figs and  other fruits also. Once I visited him when his pear tree was in full production and I was amazed to his pruning.  He does not cut the water shoots as everyone recommends, instead, those super strong shoots, he ties them and pulls them down. The water shoots had the most incredible size pears I ever seen. I am not sure it had any impact on the tree, as it was loaded with great looking fruit.

With Grapes, that is the recommendation also, keep 2 branches, until they reach trellis, in case one breaks, and only then, and one is cut out.

Hi cyberfarmer,
It all depends on what you want to do.
If you want to propagate then keep some root-shoots and airlayer them or pull them out after 2 months as some will come with roots.
If say you have a tree with a trunk of a big diameter and you don't want to propagate then keeping the suckers is of no interest,
especially because those shoots will make lot of growth and be harder to eliminate at a bigger size - not mentioning harvesting the leaves in Fall - removing them at a small size is far more easy.
Root-shoots pump on the sap and so will delay the ripening of the crop and make your dirt depleted more quickly.
So if of no use, remove them asap .
For people in colder zones, I would advise to move some 2 or 4 root-shoots ( you don't need 100 of them :P - except if you have space ) to their own place or pot as to not slow the ripening of figs
on the main tree.
IMO, one should, at some point, target fruit production.

I guess this idea doesn't translate to figs. With figs, even if the top of the tree is lost, new shoots will emerge from the root ball. Olives store their energy in the leaves. If the main the tree is lost, the suckers might be the only chance for the root ball to survive. 

most other fruits are grafted onto rootstocks, the suckers that form will be that of the rootstock. Remove the suckers from them while young unless you want to layer them for future grafting then mound the dirt around the base for 1 year then rake it back in winter and you'll have rooted rootstocks for grafting.
99% of fig trees are not grafted. so the suckers will be true to the plant. I grows many of my"in ground" fig trees as bushes 3-5 stalks per plant from the roots.  some branches die and some don't on certain varieties in winter. the ones I know don't die back bad or at all have only 1-2 main stalks but still within a manageable height and kind of bushy. I harvest a good crop from my trees and the extra plant material they produce provide me with new varieties. in pots I stick with 1 or 2 stems per plant because I stack my pots in winter with the large 20-30gal pots on bottom and smaller ones on top of them. 
You should always try to air layer suckers with a clean growing media and not dig up suckers from your soil if sharing your plants with others. This is how many soil diseases and pest get passed around. a clean growing media can be new potting soil, a soilless mix, or similar. Other things that can be used but need to be heated are compost and perlite, sand with peat and mulch, or an old potting soil from plants that failed as long the soil is cooked you'll remove all the nasties. I use an old metal wheelbarrow tub to cook my soil if using old potting soil or any compost. mix it with a shovel as it cooks and when temp reaches 150 bing it's done. a meat thermometer works great.  

Wow, I never thought about being so careful about pathogens. Don't many tree companies grow the trees in ground and then only dig them up when ready to sell? I know that one grower where I bought some olive trees does that and then puts them in 36" boxes when he is ready to send out to nurseries.

BTW, olives are usually grown on their own roots.

figs are normally not field grown and sold bare root they are pot grown. main reason is it's less stress on the plant and you can avoid RKN by growing in pots. 

I've gotten apple trees bare root that had RKN about 3 years ago and I had to burn all of them so yes other trees can harbor these pest though most nurseries are on point about checking for these things. I wouldn't worry too much about infested plants unless you deal with a bunch of backwood nurseries and hobby growers in which case I'd say get cuttings instead of plants.