The key to experimenting with defoliation is doing it thoughtfully. Don't just remove leaves at random, only remove a leaf if it's creating unwanted shading of lower bud sites. If done on a healthy plant, it's unlikely you will do any major damage to the plant(at least during veg since it can always be given time to recover) so experiment with it to see how your plants respond to it. Personally I like to do a fairly thorough defoliation right before I flip to 12/12 and then a lighter one after the flowering stretch.