Personally, I defoliate autos, much less than photos. I tend to 'tuck' the leaves if I can and take them off if they are blocking a bud. I do not take leaves from autos simply for the sake of taking leaves. If you take leaves to expose buds, you will be taking quite a few leaves. One other note, is that I do not take the 'top' fan leaves from the last node.
That's just what I do and there are many ways that I am sure will work as well as mine, if not better.