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captain.koons said:
IMO. topping allows for a more even canopy and gives you a better yield if you consider the amount of top buds replacing pop corn buds.

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I see where you are going with this....Have you ever grown in the great Outdoors!?  You do realize the light source (The Sun) moves throughout the sky, allowing all leaves on the plant to get hit with direct sunlight at some point throughout the day.  The popcorn buds theory doesn't really apply to me, i've never gotten more than 5-10% of the weight come from fluffy buds. Usually all nice big colas, along with many 1-4 gram buds even along the main stem where light penetration is a problem.

A canopy is important indoors when the lightsource does not move and is centered above the plants, with rays coming in from angles and not all from above like the sun would be, and it moves.

You see what i'm getting at? The sun penetrates even into the inner budsites outdoors because in the morning it may be blocked by a fan leaf etc... but throughout the 8 hours of direct sun, it's gonna be exposed to some direct sunlight almost guranteed... I'm having trouble helping you visualize this i'm pretty baked and tend to ramble...

Edit:  BTW with the plants becoming a christmas tree shape, there isn't really a canopy, and since we let our plants stretch a little bit at the beginning of veg. there is plenty of room between each branch/node to let light in, much like a Sativa plant would but it's actually just a stretched pure Indica that looks kinda lanky.

And one last thing... Considering everyone seems to hate on "popcorn buds"  In the past, the crystaliest nuggets on every one of my plants were the popcorn buds right next to the main stem, from the bottom to 3/4 of the way up the plant, protected from the elements outside by all the Fan Leaves that block them.  So popcorn buds are something I want not something to avoid....  Just trying to fill you guys in on what/how I like to grow!