If the shade in your garden is provided by large trees, then dealing with leaves is, no doubt, high on your list of "things to do" in putting your garden to bed for the winter.
I'm not an obsessively tidy-minded gardener, but I do try to get the leaves off of the gravel drive and paved paths. If left in the drive, leaves decompose nicely and provide humus that encourages the weeds that like to seed there. I've learned to do my main garden clean up in spring when all remaining dead plant stems and leaves are removed as well. In the fall, I leave the bulk of leaves that settle in the borders; removing those that are trying to smother plants. I also leave dead plant remains (unless they really get on my nerves) on the theory that they help protect plant crowns. In warmer areas, or those with continual winter wet, it may be better to clean up dead plant remains in fall to prevent the spread of fungal diseases. In my climate, that little bit of extra protection can mean survival for some marginally hardy plants.
Over the years, I think I've tried just about every method of removing leaves. I've raked them with a variety of rake designs; I've pulled them off and out of plants with my hands; I've blown them off driveways and paths and I've vacuumed them up with both a leaf vac and a lawnmower. I try not to use the leaf blower around plants if I can help it. The high velocity wind can damage leaves and any nasty fungi floating around can be blown into uninfected areas.
When I was a child, we used to burn leaves, and I can still remember the
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"smell of autumn." This is not a legal procedure where I live and besides creating fumes, it's a waste of good organic material.
The majority of large trees in my USDA zone 7 garden are various oaks (Quercus). Most of them have the habit of releasing their leaves in increments. They start dropping them in September, before most leaves have even started to color. Most of them are down by the end of November, but they wait until spring when their new leaf buds open to drop the rest of them. This means that from first leaf fall until new leaf growth begins there is a continual supply of fallen oak leaves.
