I think you guys are just making a simple solution or maintenance issue more difficult.
It would seem, these suggested modifications would create more unnecessary components on a simple system.
It's a non issue, now that we are aware of this potential blockage.
Well, imagine instead of taking loose several clamps and removing an elbow with a mallet, then digging around with a tool to clear the junk out you just popped a couple of latches, lifted off the top of the box and unscrewed a filter - that you could take over to the bench and gently brush (and/or back-flush with the water hose) - all without tools. And, btw, the filter would have about six times the area of the original screen so you wouldn't have to clean it nearly as often.
The box would replace the elbow, and you would never have to tinker with it or remove it. The only added component would be the filter, which can be cleaned and reused indefinitely. So, basically one additional component. There's a reason that pretty much all TM's use a similar filter nowadays - it's a pretty good idea, and not invented by me by any stretch of the imagination!