If this was your first major defol of them, I'd certainly give them all time to fully recover (new growth) before flipping the switch. Otherwise, a handful won't recover as quickly as the rest and miss out on a bunch of the stretch, be runts, get shaded out, and not produce much at all for you.
That was my first intuition (and the reason I didn't flip last night) so I think I will follow your advice on this and let it go a few more days. If things get too out of hand I can always get some kind of V-screen in the "doughnut hole" and then twist tie plants to that screen.
I actually thought about doing something like that last round, when I had those chicken wire cages around the lights. Basically, making a big chicken wire "fence" around the outer dimensions of the lower tier's central hole that stretched up 3 feet or so on four sides with some kind of dowel or rebar in the corners to keep it nice and rigid.
Then anything on the bottom tier could be adjusted to eliminate gaps in the wall.