I'm kinda confused as to what the actual question here is but i'll try. You leave a minimal amount of leaf material to slow the cuttings transpiration, since there is no root system to carry the h20. The plant gets all of it's moisture via the leaves because we keep cuttings near 100% humidity. So yes, only like 2 or 3 leaves required, and they can be cut even smaller and root just fine. I cut the tips of all my leaves off because i use a small cloner and don't want leaves on top of leaves. Anywhere leaves are in contact with something during cloning is a spot that can harbor bacteria or mold can develop, all bad things.

If your cuttings are more than like 5" long, you can trim them down. Just because you remove an entire branch doesn't mean it needs to stay that way. If you have a 5" cutting with 5-7 nodes, consider yourself blessed, and trim the growth off all but the top 2 and you will have many excellent sites for roots to grow from.

I hope this helps, and if it doesn't, it's cause i'm high and misread your concerns.:rastasmoke: