Some strains grow straight-up, some spread-out. If the leaves are being blown back-n-forth across each other, you can usually turn the pot a bit to avoid this.

Removing the fans is a bad idea in my book. If the leaf is getting light, photosynthesis is happening. If photosynthesis is happening, the buds will get their fair share of the benefits. (sugars, mobile stored nutrients, temperature regulation, moisture retention...) If you cut the fans to get the bud more light, you lose a good portion of the benefits the bud was recieving, and no bud is as proficient at photosynthesis as the fans. In other words...the fan leaf is not there to support itself, it's there to do it's part for the plant as a whole. Also, if the fan's aren't necessary, why would cannabis evolution have kept them?
Removing fans can and usually will stunt the buds. There are techniques calling for this assault, but they are usually given time to recover (and resume normal growth) before flowering.

5 plants in a 1.2 square foot space...the largest container that could do that is 5 one gallon containers, and that's squeezing them in. (I just measured my one galloners...6 inches in diameter each) My plants outgrow one gallon containers about three quarters of the way through the growth phase. (or so) Hopefully he meant a 1.2 square meter space.