@2davidc8 Right now, I don’t know of a better design.
Either you have the guards to prevent the leaves…but then have water flow every where. Or you leave the guards off, have the gutters collect leaves and you need to schedule a twice a year clean-out with yourself & the ladder.
There are a few other options like these downspout strainers.
I prefer to own one of these hose attachments—our is different and has a “flat” sprayer on the end. And with one of these trimmers, we keep the branches out of the way of the roof & the gutters.
We were smart with our landscape, as well. All of our deciduous trees other than two honey locusts are planted away from the house. For the most part, the locust leaves flush through the spouts…the leaf stems do collect in the gutters though, so that’s what we got the hose extender for.
I’ve been a property manager for some time. On most properties, we leave the gutters open. On buildings that are in heavily wooded locations, we use the guards, then heavily mulch the plant beds below for the occasional down pours the gutters can’t handle.