Grass clippings are free fertilizer so I mulch. Also, with the technology and advances of mulching blades in the past 30 years, there is no need for me to even think about bagging 99 percent of the time. With a Ninja blade on my Snapper, I can even mulch leaves to the the point would never know I had leaves on the lawn..... within reason. Here is the 1% exception. If the leaves are 5" thick, you can't expect miracles. In that case, I mulch the leaves as best I can and then bag them. That's the only time I remove the chute plug on my Snapper. With a heavily wooded lot, the key is to stay on top of the leaf drop without letting it build up too thick, this way you can just keep mulching.
The Gator Blades are not bad for mulching, but IMO they are not what they used to be quality wise. 15 or 20 years ago, they were seriously heavy duty blades. Now, they look 1/2 the quality of what they used to be, if that. Everything changes, but still the advances in blade design for mulching have been very good.