>The notion of removing the queen or restricting the queen to increase honey production was first articulated by Dr. Hachiro Shimanuki.

I believe work done by A.V. Mitchener, a professor at University of Manitoba, would have pre-dated Dr. Shimanuki. Mitchener ran a study from 1923-1954 using hive scales on at least 15 commercial honey bee colonies each year. Using the hive weight gain data, he determined main nectar flow dates for Manitoba. In 1947, after 23 years of data collection, he published an article in which he observed colonies could be requeened mid-way through the main honey flow with no loss to honey production. Ceasing brood rearing mid-way through the honey flow was a way of preventing surplus bees during the August dearth while still giving the colony time to raise bees for winter. 

Having said that, his question was really "when is the best time of year to requeen without impacting honey yield." This isn't quite the same thing as Dr. Shimanuki's prediction "honey yield will be increased if the queen is removed or restricted during the main honey flow" but it is close enough I thought it deserved mention. 

>  I could find nothing to support the idea that restricting brood rearing in honey bee colonies is beneficial in any respect, but if their is evidentiary proof, bring it on.

In this discussion it may be important to differentiate between restricting brood area and removing brood altogether. The impact to honey bee physiology may be quite different between restricting queens to three or four frames for brood production and removing the queen so there is no brood at all. I say this because B. Smedal et al in 2009, demonstrated the presence of brood pheromone, as opposed to the presence of brood, causes depletion of vitellogenin in nurse bees. In light of that, I can see why restricting a queen to a smaller area for brood simply results in smaller colonies. 

On the other hand, logically (which is seldom relevant in beekeeping), it's a bit murky to me whether having no brood would cause an increase in foragers either because I thought it was a depletion of vitellogenin that contributes to the development of foraging behaviour. In the absence of  brood pheromone, vitellogenin reserves should remain high, so would bees still transition to foraging? I don't know but I wouldn't assume that to be the case.

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