Well, I hate to rain on your parade here but we have to use one because we are on a corner lot with a bunch of trees around us. Last year we had a tree fall on our fence from a neighbors yard. He did nothing about it for 6 months after telling us he was gonna get it removed. Very considerate! We ended up having it removed when we cut down a few big pine trees. Thanks for nothing good neighbor!
Then, near our driveway, we have our other neighbor who has giant nut trees that literally crap all over our driveway! It's so bad, that it literally stains the concrete when they fall. Not only are there tons of tiny acorns, but they have some type of nut tree that literally drops nuts bigger than golf balls. I have to look up what they are because they are huge! I have to get the leaf blower and blow it back onto their side because who else is going to do it?
Plus, next to those nut trees, are all the other trees that drop leaves all over our driveway and I don't like leaving them there because certain things can hide in there like bugs and snakes etc.
Well, that's my rant and I'm sticking to it!
I know you must hate those leaf blowers, but I would be out there all day and not get anything done if I were to manually try and remove all the debris.