What do you think takes longer to grow?
a single 16oz plant
or 16x 1oz plants?
or better yet, let's say you have the room for 16 plants in 1 gallons, pushing 1 oz a plant. You can delay cycle 4 plants every 2 weeks.
Then come harvest time, you'll be harvesting a qp every 2 weeks. That's the major benefit of running multiple small plants, you're constantly harvesting and cycling plants.
A 1 pound plant, requires a lot of veg time, and some people don't want to sit around or rely on a single huge harvest to get them by till next harvest. That's what outdoor growing is for.
My setup doesn't allow me to do such a cycle, but if I could I'd much rather harvest a QP every 2 weeks instead of a pound every 4+ months.