i agree, nice looking, but too close to produce good results. i'm with the don't prune too much people, but it looks like you have some space to play with so i would try slight bending to get some more room in between.
Yep, agreed, to an extent.
As long as EVERY leaf in the grow is made to flutter with each pass of the oscillating the circ fan/s, bending stuff creatively could help create better airflow.
However, the lower branches are still going to produce smaller, wispier buds than those connected a bit further up the plant. I cope by not growing that part of the plant.
Pruning a plant won't in any way slow down the material you leave on the plant- if anything, it'll grow better as the roots are not having to supply as much vegetable mass but are already developed enough to do so. Pruning can get pretty extreme- and cannabis plants love it.
Here's a seriously extreme example of pruning in my mums:
mothers just after a pass of cuttings...
...and then just 2 weeks later.
I saw someone elsewhere on some other unnamed cannabis growing forum saying that pruning back more than 50% of growth would SURELY kill the plant... and just laughed.
You certainly do need to keep some leaves on the plant, but just one set of leaves per branch left on the plant is enough for it to recover nicely.