you are stuck in a loop my friend. The light intensity is maxed out. It’s as much as they could get with the tech they had. They grow 24 hrs with as much light as they can cram into the room. Watts are yield. You are bringing up a compromise that they don’t notice. They yield higher and faster with the method. 1000 w mh a couple feet apart covering the whole room and then a flower room with hps set up the same way. Or they actually change the bulbs.
I am telling you I can see them recover and start processing in only a couple or few hours rather than a 6 hour dark period.
Whether this is all best for the plant is hardly a commercial growers concern. It’s best for yield and turnover. That’s the goals.
I'm missing what your saying somehow... watts don't equal yield, not even close. Photons equal yield. If that were the case HID would absolutely murder LED.
By cram as much light as possible I'm not sure what you mean? Enough to indice photorespiration? Photosaturation?
And I absolutely agree with you a commercial grower could care less in most cases.
Photosaturation, photorespiration and light stress are all real factors we can't deny. I don't disagree that a 2 hr dark period may be enough hell maybe an hr for all I know. What I'm getting at is not that it can't be done but that there are benefits to a dark period and many many growers report no significant difference in some reduction of photoperiod. I would explain that by saying the light intensity and the duration will equal the DLI (amount of photons delivered) needed to maximize growth.
So we can provide a more intense light for a shorter duration as long as photorespiration is not occurring and reducing the plants efficiency to convert it to energy