The hydro store guy has obviously never grown cannabis, doesnt know what he is talking about, or was just being a jerk.
Think of your stems as a freeway and your leaves, small side stems, and bud sites as the side streets with the water and nutrients being the traffic trying to reach its destination. With more side streets, less of the traffic reaches the top buds. i.e. some of the nutrients and water are used up b4 reaching the top bud sites that get the most light and need the most food.
Some strains need a certain amount of fan leaves per bud site to thrive but as long as you dont go edward scissor hands on the top fan and sugar leaves you can cut as much of the bottom larf that doesnt get good light as you want. Side lighting can make the larf into better buds.
