Thanks for the replies.
Since my post, I've found information supporting both sides to the question. Many say as you have advised, leaving them on is no problem. But, I have also found some describing my exact problem; plants started indoors, staying too long in a too small pot, going to bud too soon as a result (clipping the male buds gets the plants devoting energy to leaf formation).
I might try 2 plants that are similar, continue clipping buds on one, doing nothing to the other, see what happens over a few weeks.
In any case, the plants are growing a lot compared to when they first moved permanently outdoors.