If a tree is up potted into a large pot, it's easy to over water it, which encourages fungus development and slows down tree growth.
If the aim is to grow a tree as quickly as possible, moving directly to the the largest size pot should produce the larger tree (if the soil is maintained at a favorable dampness).
However, for permanent pot culture, I would recommend gradual up potting. The key with potted culture is to keep the growth velocity as low as possible without stalling. A tree thrown directly into a large pot is going to establish a very fast growth velocity, as it has no real resistance against growth. Then, once the tree has filled out the pot, it will stall out and your only option to encourage growth is to prune both foliage and roots. And, while the tree was busy growing you didn't get the fruit production that you wanted.
So, your goal is to establish some resistance against growth but without getting to the point of completely stalling the tree's growth, which would cause it to go into decline. I suppose one way to think about it is to consider the analogy of being in a desert where you have 2 options: small 4 ounce containers of water every couple of hours or one 2 gallon jug at once.