not sure about the thc part but IT COULD BE in certain varieties
First, during hours of light plants perform many tasks and even under full sunlight their ability to take in light and process it for energy is limited so plants will allocate 'energy' for many tasks, they will multitask, allotting a certain amount of 'energy' to each task according to priorities. Since THC will degrade during hours of light rather than attempt to produce as much THC as is possible plants will allocate less energy to that task during hours of light. During hours of darkness when plants operate on stored 'energy' they will shut down certain processes and slow others down and reallocate their 'energy' use to different functions. Growth and THC production are two of the main functions/tasks during hours of darkness and they are allocated more 'energy' than they would have to use during hours of light.
Think about how many times you have checked the height of your light above the tops of your plants just before it/they turned off and it appeared that you did not need to raise your light(s), but when you looked at your plants the following morning, or whatever time your light(s) came back on the tops of your plants were too close to the light(s). That is because they were allocated more 'energy' for growth, and it is the same with THC production.
THC works somewhat like sunscreen in glandular trichome heads, it protects the delicate glands from the managing rays of the sun/grow lights. As it does that job some deteriorates each day and then during hours of darkness what was lost is replenished and a small additional amount more. What you have is an up and down but slow gradual increase in THC over time, something like if you took a handsaw with the teeth up and held it at an angle. Like the teeth THC would go up during hours of darkness, down during the hours of light, but not below the previous low point and then again during hours of darkness it would go up again and end up higher ... and so on and so on until harvest.
For many, many years experienced growers knew to harvest outdoor crops before the sun would rise or as soon after as possible so there would be no, or at least as little THC degradation as possible. Indoor growers would manually turn off their timers after the last period of light so they would not come back on before they could harvest and cause THC degradation.
The idea behind an extended period of darkness is plants will continue their hours of darkness energy allocation which means increased THC production, but without any light there is no degradation, no loss to damaging light rays, so there is only a continual increase. Genetics always play a part, as with anything too do with plants, but 72 hours is about the maximum amount of time that a plant can continue to operate on stored 'energy,' on what I jokingly call 'battery backup.' Not every strain will have as much 'battery backup/ to rely on and then things people do to plants, like stripping them of leaves, will further reduce the amount of 'battery backup' they have to rely on, but by using all the 'battery backup' a plant has will cause at least some percentage of increase of THC production without any loss occurring. In some strains, and depending on what people do that result in their plants having less stored 'energy' to draw on the increase will be less but in others it can be a big increase, as much as 30% according to research and testing.
The way I see it, with as much as people will pay to create their setups, the amount some people will pay for their genetics (meaning not bagseed people), with what they pay for things like hydro or aero systems or 'designer soils' and 'designer fertilizers' and any other nutrients they may use, possibly also paying for CO2 and of course the cost of running their lights and fans etc., all to try to squeeze every last bit of potency out of their genetics, then why in the wide, wide world of sports would someone not do something that will not cost them a single penny too do but will result in anything from a minor increase in THC to a major increase in THC?
Someone may only end up with a 3% gain or an 8% gain or maybe a 16% gain, but even any of those should be worth it since it would not cost a single red cent to get it, and if they end up with a 20% gain or a 26% gain or a full 30% gain then it most certainly should be more than well worth doing since it would cost them absolutely nothing to get it.
It makes no sense at all too me for anyone to pass up doing something that it absolutely free and will give them at the very least a minor increase in THC levels and that could give them a major increase in THC levels. Considering that most THC is produced during hours of darkness and during an extended period of darkness there can be no loss to light degradation there has to be some amount of increase over and above not giving plants an extended period of darkness.