There are all sorts of wild beliefs. Few have taken the time and effort to prove anything.
So, if you think whimsically doing something and putting blind faith into unsuppoorted conclusions about those behaviours, then, "bro-science" is right for you, lol. Go ahead and "shock" the plant with ice on the roots or burn the stem or stick a nail into or deprive them of light for long periods of time. fuck, you can even electrocute the soil, BWahahah. there is all sorts of fucking nonsense out there you can engage in if that's what get your rocks off.
If a belief has been around for decades and has no evidence to support it, those people are some combination of lazy, stupid or disingenuous. Refusing to put any work into proving a hypothesis is a major red flag that what those people are selling is total bullshit.
Take "flushing at end of cycle" hypothesis that is/was very popular. The reasons they gave initially were empirically proven false and what did the people who put faith into this concept do? They made up new reasons as to why it was still important and has some sort of positive effect. So, initially they said it reduces minerals in the flower - sounds fairly rational with zero foudnational knowledge. But, the plant has no excretion system for excess minerals. This would have mostly eliminated the possibility having a bit of plant biology education in the first place. Even so, they tested the plant material of buds that were flushed and compared to a control group of buds that were not flushed and there was no difference in mineral content. They also did blind taste tests that showed a slightly greater than 50% of people prefering the non-flushed bud flavor, lol. Which just means they had no fucking clue which was flushed and which was not.
After that information came out, all of a sudden new reasons were given as to why you should flush before harvest, lol. It's like dealing with a toddler arguing about their bedtime. OVercome one objection and they just make shit up to continue arguing obstinately. With far too many people it's about what they do, not what the truth is.
I've fallen for some bro-science bullshit before, and feel quite stupid when i realize the mistake i made, but that's the difference between a person who can adapt and evolve and one who cannot. Few will (begrudgingly) let go of a long-held belief in the face of better information. Most will cing to it because admitting it was wrong means they were retarded for potentially decades. they'd rather pretend its still real for the sake of their ego and personal perspective on how things work, even if erroneous.
extended darkness - zero evidence
cold-shocking roots - zero evidence
stabbing the trunk with a nail - zero evidence
spraying your plant with milk to combat wpm- zero evidence
the list of such things is potentially endless because far fewer things are true than what imaginative people with a lack of edication can make up, lol.
some common sense things from knowing a bit about biology/chemistry.
Mass/energy is neither created or lost. What existed before must exist after any reaction/interaction though it may be in a new configuration. cell differntiation... This can relate to a bunch of the bro science nonsense out there. Energy is a currency in the plant. It powers all sorts of endothermic reactions that are necessary for molecule building and cell devision. So, depriving it of light will only slow or stop production of all things in the plant as any stores are used up... While still possible to have some sort of net positive due to evaporation rates and what not, it's a huge negative to overcome to create a net positive in some other way. Also, this can be measured and compared to control groups to prove it very easily, yet it is not done. Refusing to prove an easily proven thing is a red flag.
Too often bro science is trying to say that a fastball thrown by a pitcher somehow speeds up after it leaves the pitcher's hand... what they say doesn't make sense relative to how the natural world works in a fundamental way. Reducing or limiting sugar production or co2 intake (see defoliation among other examples) is almost never goig to add up to a net positive for the plant. possibly, never.. but leaving the door open for some small, insignificant effect that might be true.
Cell differentiaition - cells perform specific functions. they are not jack of all trades. e.g. sex organs are not storage facilities for minerals. Assuming that flowers get loaded up with minerals was retodded from the start, lol. For the record i fell for this too on first fwe grows. i flushed plants and allowed a fade to occur. Then i didn't and couldn't tell a difference. in fact the buds tasted better, sooner after drying than ever before, lol. NEver looked back. Accepted my retardation, adapted, and moved on.
not understanding how sugar flows through the vascular tissue.. making it readily available all throughout the plant. any gradient differences are actually part of how it circulates. they are temporary and strive for equilibrium across memebranes. Apical dominance is why some buds form better than others. Taller or more 'primary' branching for lack of technical term will demand the most resources and get the most growth. You can cover up similar buds with similar dominance and they will absolutely develop the same as those getting a little light. Worrying abut light hitting plant surfaces with 1/100th of the chlorophyl aerial desnity is not something to worry about maximizing, lol. technically anything green on the plant can likely perform 'some' photosynthesis, but if there is 1/100th of the pigment present there's 1/100th or less of the photosynthesis ocurring.. 1/1000th in stems.
My suggeston -- do things in a simple way until you see enough genetic variety to have a good grasp of that volatility before you do esoteric and weird shit. Then when you see the differences are no better or even posibly worse, you know it's just snake oil.
The idea of 'boosting' p and k is another retarded urban myth. the only way it will do something positive is if you didn't feed enough p/k prior, lol. About 60% of p/k intake is by active tranasport. So the plant grabs what it needs on demand based on simple feedback loops. empirical studies show that feeding above a goldilocks zone for either has no impact on yield or potency. there are no "plant boosters" lol.. this is marketing nonsense selling falsehoods. you may need a slightly different ratio for vege vs flower, but it's nothing as extreme or simple as "boost pk and give no N" lol.
life is a spectrum, not binary. if somethingn is presented as good vs bad or do this and magically good things happen, high probability someone is selling you some bullshit.