I pull hundreds and hundreds of leaves off my plants through the grow cycle. I don't care what kind of leaves they are, I open the plant up to get light, etc. I stop once they're in flower, generally, but it's not gonna kill anything. Your plant looks fine to me. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but go watch some youtube vids, a lot of the old timer growers pull leaves like crazy. Some say to leave them alone. I've had way better yields when I manipulate the plant than when I don't, including removing leaves. Then you don't get a bunch of crappy little buds at the bottom and the other ones will get good light.