I can't tell if you are trolling but here it is. No, It makes the larf not look like larf, at the expense of top bud weight, that isn't boosting over all quality, it's losing yield to make ugly ducklings less ugly. Stripping leaves that were already in good light also drastically reduces respiration rate and leaf temps, you starve the plant of energy, and then force it to spend time making more leaves to be able to function properly again. All ''pro'' defoliators say the same thing ''You have to know when to do it and how much''. What they really mean is ''you have to take away leaves that are not of real use to begin with''. If the upper leaves are of no use, you've fked something up, or you just don't get it.
The only possible way defoliation ''could'' repeatable increase yield is if you had too much W, say 1k hps, and you were trying to force use it over too small a space, say a 3x3. You have logistically fked up in the dimension/light W amount, so the inferior plan B, is to increase the dimension and available bud sites vertically, by butchering all the top and middle leaves to develop lower and middle bud. The real way to do it, and to get more yield and quality.. would be to scrog or sog a 5x5. That way you don't have to stunt and butcher the plants most important upper leaves, that are already in the most optimal light and leaf temp range achievable. If you increase your ambiants to increase the lower or middle leaf temps, then your top canopy temp is going to fry the upper canopy. Although that would not be as much an issue with led, you could increase general ambiant.. the problem you still have, in both situations, is that mass defoliation will also drop your humidity a lot.. so your vpd is way out of line compared to the ambient to maintain leaf temps. If you tried to correct that by using a humidifier, you don't have enough leaves left over and the added humidity would simply slow down respiration even further.
Now you go ahead and look up the graveyard of failed defoliatio grows around here, and look for the key words ''don't take too much or you will stunt them''. So basically, they take just enough so they don't notice the stunting, but it's still there. Then they shout from the roof tops how they cracked the secret of defoliation.
