I have seen lots of photos where folks have snipped the points off of the leaf tips. It seems particularly more frequently practiced in Clone threads.
Is there a horticultural reason for doing this, or is it purely cosmetic?
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It’s to save space and to further justify, let you know which are old and which are new growth for complete IPM.
If you have a perfect clone solution, you can save more of the plant/nodes.
If not, have plenty of vegetation for root generation by canabalizing.
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It also limits transpiration.
Personally I don’t do this.
I do leave lots of lowers for cannibalizing just in case 
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I see many cut off leaf tips so they are not showing tip burn. Other than that I know of no good reason for it.
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I usually do it to limit transpiration, massive leaves on my tiny cuts is no good.
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lol vanity.
For clones I believe some do it because the plant at that stage is easier to maintain with less leaf matter and transpiration.
I do it because i clone in small cloners and they dont fit with all the leaves.
this
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Its usually clones that have the leaf tips cut.
My theory is its so the plants can send more of the nutrients to create a root system quicker.
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I trim the leaf tips on clones as it tells the plant to stop growing that leaf and focus on new growth instead.
I’ve also had better luck rooting clones that had snipped leaves, compared to those that don’t… but you can root clones regardless.
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To remove stomata so new cuts can keep their turgor easier as new cuts have no roots yet in prop to supply that many stomata : )
Same reason as the high rh in prop , keeps new cuts from over transpiring and wilting befor they get a chance to root
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Fair enough, I was thinking more on regular plants and not clones but some interesting info being posted.
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As suggested clone doesn’t need to spend energy and nutrients to preserve the existing structure and concentrates on developing new one … 
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Some folks do this religiously when cloning.
Why?
Less leaf for the clipping to support while trying to form roots…less energy expenditure= faster cloning…
at least that is the old-school thought on it…
I only do that if the leaves are really large on a small-ish clone.
I personally believe the damage stresses it too much otherwise…
But other growers swear by it!
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Snipping the leaves is a halfway measure.
With clones it is all about the Rooting! Clones don’t need leaves, they are struggling to get a root system established, photosynthesis comes later.
Take a look at @JoeCrowe’s Protocol Zero thread. He strips clones down to a skinny stem, drowns them and, finally, only the strong survive. Those are the ones you want.
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Giving my clones open wounds while they’re struggling to root? No thank you.
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The clones still need energy for the time being until new roots have been formed, so a bit light is good at least in the region where the transpiration isn’t too strong.
The clones are almost genetically similar so why needs to be there a selection? 100% rooting isn’t unusual.
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https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/cjps-2018-0038#abstract
check this out
Conclusions
Type of rooting hormone strongly influenced the success and quality of adventitious rooting in cannabis cuttings, with the 0.2% IBA gel delivering a higher rooting success rate than the 0.2% willow extract. Removing 30% of leaf tips from cuttings reduced rooting success rate and three leaves had higher root quality compared with two leaves without influencing rooting success rate. Position of cutting on the stock plant did not influence either rooting success rate or root quality. To achieve maximum rooting success and root quality, cuttings from either apical or basal positions should have at least three fully expanded uncut leaves and be dipped in an IBA rooting hormone. If a reduction in leaf area is desired, either because high humidity cannot be maintained or more airflow is desired in the propagation environment, then lowering the leaf number to two fully expanded leaves is preferential to cutting leaf tips.
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I cut leaf tips on clone cuttings, only to keep the cutting within the rim of a solo cup. That’s how i clone, in a solo cup 1/3 full of coco, & sandwich baggie for a dome.
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I read somewhere else about that and no longer cut my tips. There’s one other horticultural reason to not snip leaves but i cant find it…looked last night but meh. also seen some state plants wont try to grow leaves cut like that and it just helps tell the plant more roots please…snip, dont snip, who cares…rockwool and gel works, any tek after that is superfluous, imo.
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Its good to see actual data, thank!
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I like to recut the stem after using the clonex gel , so as not to hinder uptake : )
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