I breed, and grow a lot of land race sats, trust me the stretch can suck balls when trying to keep one small but I do understand what you are sayin
the way i grow, all plants are pretty hard to keep small, once they stretch all the branches elongate they grow like large bushes
not like little lanky beanpoles lol
if i were growing land race sativas i would tie them down or chop them into the size i need them to be
its sad that many folk feel the stretch is something to avoid, when this is not the case imo
of course some phenotypes are poor and will have terrible inter node spacing and poor bud development, this is not a stretch issue but poor genetics/phenotpye
there are many sativa hybrids that express very little indica in the buds that will stretch from 6 inches to 4 feet, and fill in during that time with numerous bud sites
they will go on to produce large colas
i still like growing little indicas too if they are nice, its just a shame when i sometimes see folk who have been vegging a plant for like 5 weeks and its still tiny
and they think there is no other alternative
peace