I have recently met a grower with over 15 years experience growing medical cannabis for clubs in the bay area. He follows the curing method here with one slight difference. He has a family member who grows the same strain that always look better at harvest, but he ignores the cure. The result is buds that are less potent, smell and taste is not as nice and in general the smoking experience is not as great. His bud looks smells and tastes great.
The only thing he does different than here is he cuts NO leaves until after the hang dry, removes fan leaves before the paper bag dry and then a final manicure before glass jars or zip-lock bags. His reasoning for leaving the leaves on while drying is to slow the drying, and protect the crystals from light degradation and physical damage from handling during the long dry and cure. His family member hangs the entire plant and basically forgets it until it is totally dry, then manicures, with basically no cure. Makes really good bud look like mid grade. Darker color, with few crystals on the outside.
This is not tried by me, but makes sense and I will try this in 4-5 weeks with my Red Diesel.
He says that drying time in the winter when temps are cool and humidity is moderate here can take 2-3 weeks depending on the density and size of plants, but his long slow dry (not all the way!) and cure is worth the wait.