What you are dealing with could well be plant competition. When plants sense near by shade due to over crowding and mass overlapping of leaves they stretch to get an advantage. Many species do this so I would gamble mj does too, being an absolute light hog.
Personally, if it came to massive defoliation over removing one or two plants in an over crowded tent, I would remove one or two plants every time. You can ofc remove lower leaves to aid in low canopy air flow but I would always draw the line at that, no full plant defoliation. 4 plants with space to grow into will be happier than 6 heavily defoliated plants.
You have stunted the growth by full defoliation and that will have an effect, be it lower end yield or a longer flower duration. It also isn't guaranteed that many leaves will not grow back and put you back in an overcrowded high humidity situation again. All the healthy airflow possible can not fix genuine over crowding, the leaves sit on top of each other and trap in condensed water. If you have to defoliate again it will once again come at a cost.
It's like an elite runner starving himself for 1 week before a marathon then being suprised that he can only maintain 10 minute miles.
