When repotting plants to a drastically different medium, the existing roots are immediately rendered “sub-optimal” for the plant, so cannot function as well as they had - and in extreme cases, will die in short order. The plant, however, can still lose water through transpiration. Reducing light levels reduces leaf temperature, so may reduce transpiration losses. I usually recommend inverting a clear plastic bag over the plant and pot to trap humidity, further slowing those losses, and moving it to lower light prevents that from becoming a “broil in bag” scenario.
I also believe that while your assessment that lower light may cause the plant to create more leaves has some validity, I don’t think it’s that straightforward of a relationship.
When light is reduced, the production of additional chlorophyll happens a great deal more easily and rapidly than the addition of all tissues associated with growth to increase the surface area. If the reduction is temporary, that may be all that happens, and the chlorophyll concentration will decline once the light levels are restored.
Plus there’s the fact that a plant with “so-so” roots “knows” it needs new roots to survive, so will redirect its efforts into doing that first.
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