Yes, it is the chronic v acute status that changes the game. Cortisol is also one of the primary hormones responsible for free fatty-acid mobilization and fat loss, which is why stims do elevate cortisol. Short bursts of cortisol from weight training, more or less, indicative of some form of metabolic damage and that is exactly what you want from a session.
Now, to what extent is dependent upon the person and for how long depends on the persons work capacity, but that leads into the planned overreaching phase, which is something that I will be writing about soon.