I am noticing that many parts of the plant do not ...

I’m trying a different way I usually do a fair defoliation in week 5 of flower but I start that defoliation process before flowering starts on a schedule. with a plant I have now I’m trying to leave it intact as possible so have been using a small piece of plant tie and pulling a couple leaves together leaving them attached to the plant to avoid stress. This might work well with @jinks101 messaging technique good luck looks good so far.

I would say cut the lower branches away and you may feel bad doing it but in the end you will get some real nice buds by doing so. the plant will focus its energy on the flower sites you want to keep and those are the ones that get the light. the ones that do not get much light are small popcorn buds, keep up the great grow, you will be happy

Highly recommend not pruning at all this late in flower. The stress and the risk are far to high, IMO. She may not recover well if you're to do this. The course of action, as you suggested, is to do very light defo if you have too. 2-3 leaves here and there over a day or two, here and there may cause a little bit of stress but shouldn't really hurt her. If you defo, try and plan to do so around the time of your feeding. This will help the little one recover faster. I've been spreading around this technique that I learned and that I use very often and it doesn't involve cutting or taking anything. Instead of cutting off a fan leaf I'll first attempt to massage and direct it out of the way. Between you forefinger and your thumb, gently massage the fan leave stem until it is malleable. Once malleable you can direct the fan into the direction you please, exposing your inner canopy to light and air👍. These massaged leaves will eventually migrate back to it's original position within 24-48 hours but just needs to be repeated. The perks of this method are this: No stress, you don't lose or have to cut a valuable fan leaf and you achieve the same results!!!! Just my two cents 😊 Hope this helped and good luck in the near future with the girls. Looking good and on your way to end-game. Cheers and happy trails. Drop me a PM if you think there's anything else I may be able to help you with.✊

They are looking sweet mate! I would wait two weeks and then take off just a few large leaves. After two weeks she's going to have stretched to her (almost) full height. Definitely too late to do any toppings though I would say. 🌱👍