pardon my stupidity, but what are "water leaves?" Do you mean Sun Leaves?

Yes, many newbies fall for the sugar to the roots or some other adage that requires hanging, upside down or not, which really are old wives tales.

You can flush all you want but you will not get the sugars out of the plant, that is part of photosynthesis. The cure time allows the sugars to be converted to byproducts we smoke. If not cured, then we get harshness. Continued harshness after 2 week cure is N, and removing N is the reason to flush.

I have tried the 24-72 hours of darkness with multiple species, and find no difference at all in intensity, quality, flavor, % of trichomes. Sometimes I do it just for convenience tho.

I suppose it could be proven something happens with the darkness, but whatever it may be has no effect that I can notice, and I been growing my own for 35 years (damn I am getting too old).