Allow me to pipe in on the cloning thing Shed, if I may
I have run lots of experiments with clones and cutting the leaves does absolutely nothing in speed of rooting or vigor of growth. I personally think it was started in the gorilla days of cloning where you are trying to fit the plant into a container and putting some sort of humidity dome around it. Its easier to do that in a small space if you trim the fan leaves.
I have run clones with leaves trimmed and no leaves trimmed and they rooted within a day of each other and in my case the untrimmed leaves rooted faster. I don't generally get much fade at all in my clones with no leaves trimmed.
I also do direct sow into soil and while they are slower to root than in rapid rooter plugs, the success rate has been as high as the rapid rooter plugs and I don't trim leaves in direct sow clones either.
Not sure I agree with the 2nd part but I certainly think the first part is the most obvious reason. Much easier to get clones to stand upright if the leaves aren't pushing each other all over the place.
I think you will find the same thing I did and it lead me to stop cutting the leaves unless I need more clones into the humidity dome.