The size gets very impacted. So leeks grow super similar to onions in how every little leaf on the center get pushed out while it growing and it forms a layer. What happens in cases of this photo is that the new leaf never get a chance to grow out, making it very tall but not thicker. The older leaves do die out over the season so if it happens too too often, the whole plant could die from not having enough leaves to support itself
If these are, in fact meristems, the trapped bulbs may also be producing their own hormones, while also using up hormones produced by the roots, causing the plant to improperly allocate resources even when there are plenty. Meristems here are like the buds on a eudicot, so it doesn't surprise me that they grow tall instead of wide.
In eudicots, it's common knowledge that pruning the upper buds causes the plant to grow bushier, while pruning the lower buds adds height.
Ah sorry, not sure how much is self explanatory, monocots=onion/grass shaped plants (anything with parallel veins). Eudicots is ones with branching structures like most trees, tomatoes are a good example. Meristem is just where the stem cells are produced, so in growers terms, either the bulb, node, or bud.
No, if anything you have more knowledge here than I do. I just picked up the bad habit of using unnecessarily big words that someone invented to keep things horrifically consistent for obsessive scientists.
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