I would not cut anything off your plants. I never do unless there is a leaf shading a bud, and I just can't bend or tie it out of the way. Another option is to top, but you only do this if you want more bud sites, and shorter, bushier plants. Seems like you already have enough bud sites. If you have more, they will be smaller and yield about the same.

I'm glad you found something that works for you, but I'm sad you have to make more skewers. From your pictures I don't see why a screen wouldn't work, then you could make a nice even carpet of buds and get the most from your lights. For watering the plants in the back, you could have a funnel attached to some tubing. Once the plants grow around the screen you can't really take them out, but this has never been a problem for me.