when yu have a toxicity, it might be a good idea to flush, if bad enough.
flushing only slows the plant down otherwise... only reduces growth/ripening, because that stuff cannot ocur without the building blocks.. and just as it is more difficult for our bodies to move energy out of storage to use (less efficient) so is it less efficient for the plant, even if it can suck down its own leaves for a bit.
blind taste tests point to the conclusion that ppl had a little confirmation bias about their "techniques" ... we all do. we all do something that is useless but thing it does something.. the better of us admit it to ourselves, accept that we were wrong on move on. I did. I used to let the plant fade the first 1 year - 1.5 years... when i didn't do it one time, I thought it tasted just as good or better, even -- and it was a clone of a plant i had harvested and smoked before.. genetic identical and very similar growing environment... so i stopped doing it. Around same time the little experiement was done analyzing mineral content and further confirmed the conlcusion.. it is not 100% certain, but ... based on basic human behaviour it's 90-95% certain it is a useless thing ppl perpetuated without cause.