during flowering how bad is it? and changing the lighting back to veg for a week to make the cola get more vertical.. bad idea or good?
Tell your friend removing fan leaves (or large amounts of ANY leaves) may interfere with the metabolic balance of the plant. If this metabolic change occurs too late in the season it could interfere with floral development and delay maturation. If any floral inhibitors are removed, the intended effect of accelerating flowering will probably be counteracted by metabolic upset in the plant. Removal of shade leaves does facilitate more light reaching the center of the plant, but if there is not enough food energy produced in the leaves, the small internal floral clusters will probably not grow any larger. Leaf removal may also cause sex reversal ("Hermies") resulting from a metabolic change.
Leapfrog is correct. Also the plant is using those fan leaves for food while in flower. You can remove them when they are dry and brown or a couple days before harvest. Good luck and good growing