imo cutting off almost any fan leaf because its blocking light is pointless. i have scientific reasoning for it though. you see leaves are not as solid as they look. only about 15% of the light that hits a leaf is used, 85% keeps going and so on. if you take it off the parts getting more light now get 15% of 100% of the energy instead of 15% of 85% of the energy. the plant has the leaves where they are for a purpose, the nice big fan leaves are the most effecient energy producers. To each their own however.