to leave leaves or not

Hi. 3rd grow (n.lights, tent, 430watt leds, coir)and looking good but am confused regarding how best to fatten cola development by getting lights on buds. I have 4 plants and the buds are close together but looking good in scrog set up. I am wondering how best to get light on the lower regions of colas...should i remove any top or side leaves on colas that are shading growth below. i don't want to reduce their ability to eat light near the top parts which are the best- but want them to develop all way down. Would it be better to cut the fingers of leaves back so still attached and photosynth'ing or remove completely. Should i add side lights? Info please.

I live where the humidity is constantly high and so a part of my defoliation process is to get air flow through the plant to prevent powdery mildew. On my current grow I mainlined the ladies and then pruned and slightly defoliated them only 4 days after flipping because the growth was too thick and asymmetric, and I wanted to direct the growth to the main colas and get air flow through. In late stages of flower, I do very selectively remove some of the large upper leaves to get light through if the cola has other leaves to support it. All of this makes harvesting and trimming easier.

What I'm saying is the plant itself and the grow conditions matter. I might do things differently if I didn't have to worry about the humidity and PM so much. Side lights would probably be a waste.

Experiment a little.

I literally only leave maybe 4 of the bigger fans on the cola, from top to bottom, I feel like 4 is enough, and when packed tight might even be too much, if I ever had to I’d go as low as 2 full size fans per cola, any less and you’d be better off just putting more effort into training colas away from each other so as not to crowd the canopy too much

Plants overcompensate because they could be eaten or branch can break soo they allways have too much.but dont take it off too much because you can affect your yeld

I like a good, full cannopy. If light isn't really hitting a leaf, it doesn't need to be there.