Personally it doesn’t make any sense to me, leaves are the main driver of vigor and growth,
When I have to defol on a really leggy plant late in flower for instance, i usually end up with smaller colas on the on defolatied plants.
My philosophy had always been more leaves more buds. When i see folks who do and swear by it, i just haven’t seen the evidence.
Like stalk splitting to trigger a cannabis plants defense in late flower for trich and resin uptick really seems like what the application is like in this instance, so much defol it triggers the plants defense.
I’d rather stalk split personally.