Yeah, leave the central leaves, even if you prune off a growth tip ("axillary bud"). No reason to remove those.. The ones pointing down and touching medium is okay to remove in that context, though.
Don't get caught up in terminology and OCD behaviours. even if "mainlining" or whatever, don't remove the leaves where you don't need to just because the herd says so. the herd is mostly uneducated in finer points of biology and extrapolating from a limited kowledge base. Leaves power growth. Reducing the size of your canopy absolutely slows things down. no ifs ands or magic to mitigate that effect. Absorbed light = growth. Leaves also are responsible for transpiration, which is how the plant gets all of its carbon, which again, is necessary for growth to occur and most likely a garden's limiting factor for growth.
This is not a catastrophe. That plant will fill in within a week or so with new leaves. Even if removing a branch you don't want to use, try to let the leaves remain there until it is absoutely necessary to remove -- overlap causing condensation, maybe air circulation is a concern etc.. a cause and effect understanding before you do remove a leaf. be selective and it's fine. Don't reduce canopy size. Carbon and light intake will suffer, incontrovertibly so.
you'll shave some vege time off while getting to same intended size, if you do.