LST produces more tops, a more even canopy, and a bigger plant. the big 3. I have drawn up something to demonstrate why. please view this to learn about apical dominance http://plantphys.info/apical/apical.html and remember that apical dominance is not a study into marijuana growing, or growing a plant efficiently or quickly. it is simply a study into apical dominance, WHY a plant will 'top' the way it will. Sorry for you die-hard topping fans but you all spread that stuff around like its the holy fricken bible so give me a chance to say what I think.
I tend to low stress train myself but some strains do respond well to fim technique you don't take all of the growing shoot off just 75% and usually you get 4 or more resulting tops. Depending on plant needs and space I tend to use a combo of super cropping, low stress, and topping
Id say "bad" is the wrong word. "why one size does not fit alllant topping" would be a better title. Blanket statements tend to isolate the speaker, since they are an extreme stance and more often wrong. That said, i personally do not top at all, nor remove any fan leaves and discovered lst by sheer accident before I was aware help was online lol Ive always argued topping stunts plants, causes stress, and lst is superior for all the reasons you listed, however, every plant, strain and grow is different and lst wouldnt work well at all in a supercrop sea of green for example, since plants arent allowed to get big enough to lst. But wider canopy is always better and who doesnt want unifornmity? Lst ftw!
I agree with you completely and the title is under the assumption that the reader is looking for the fastest highest yield (as most growers are) I cannot deny that topping can be used for certain things, but not this.
Also, hope you dont mind... I couldnt save your pic you made so i screenshotted it. Id like to hold onto that little diagram and share it later with your permission.
I also prefer LST, however one thing that I will always use topping for over LST is it's just much easier to guarantee uniformly height new growth (for example topping a plant at the 5th node will almost always yield 2 even height new tops) but other than that LST is usually more than enough to train plants into monsters.
Mine three! I always top as well, I don't think it's a BAD thing to do. LST helps get the plant the way you want it, here's some results of what LST can do from start to finish
If people still look at this thread, I'd love to show you my practices with topping plants. I didn't really use any LST other than bending the plants around a tomato cage and tieing them down. The one that was topped produced significantly more than the control plant. Both plants came from the same seeds and recieved exactly the same treatment other than one being topped. I think your title was misleading since it says Topping is Bad whereas it should say LST Reduces Natural Auxin Placement. I agree that LST is more damaging to a plant since it is not how it was meant to grow, but toping provides the extra advantage to the plant if you do it before it goes into flowering.
Eh... Here's some older pics of the strawberry cough I'm scrogging. Topped once and lst. Anyhow 1000 watt Scrog Journal