Hey brother. Me personally I like to defol and reveal potential bud sites. It's still early enough to remove some from the top to open up the lower canopy as there's too much growth on top for your light to peneratre lower.
Just be mindful of what you are taking, leaf tuck where you can of course. And when removing leafs from the top, go around the node and if 1 bud site has 3 leafs coming out remove the 1s that are blocking out the most light on the lower sites try to keep some leafs coming from bud sites. And of course if you have leafs that are sticking out the side and will have no impact in light pen if you take it off, then just leave it of course. You have a lot of foliage so ye, you can remove to open up the lower sites and it's still early enough that it won't do too much damage.
Good luck bro.