Nothing wrong with thinning out the foliage. As a matter of fact you're going to have to do some of that up above if you really want to get the bigger buds.
I'd say you got a solid month left to go on those. You're at the stage that I would call Early flower, but that's just me. I sorta call those little button buds as they build and stack what yours are just starting to do you'll eventually see the calix's start to swell up. When that happens you'll be getting close.
If you want to thin out up on top, start with one of your larger interior fan leaves that's covering up at least two Bud sites below. Clip it off and leave a little bit of stem sticking out away from them the main stem. I don't like to injure the main stem if I can avoid it could potentially introduce some mold or something in there. Then make sure to only take one fanleaf from each Cola so you might take three or four per plant every 2 or 3 days.
Your plants will eventually stop growing vertical as they get photoinhibition from the power of your light. That could cause the buds on top to bulk up or it could cause the buds on top to get kind of fluffy. You may be able to help the fluffiness factor by getting a fan blowing across the top of those plants as they get a little bit more mature to help cool them off. If you do that since they're already experiencing heat stress up there it's a good idea to make sure your humidity is up a bit if possible.
Where I'm currently growing
Where I'll be Nov 1st
