Thankyou for watching! The leaves were cut in half to reduce the total leaf area (leaf size). Large leaves lose more water than small ones, especially on hot sunny days and they need a lot of water to maintain their size, otherwise they will wilt and dry out and die. But its hard for the rootless cutting to take up lots of water as it hasn't yet grown roots. And we cannot cut all the leaves off as we do need the mature leaves to photosynthesize and generate energy which is needed for the cuttings to grow roots. So its a balance.
