I second that opinion, get a robot. They work independently of the filter, suck up everything, and require very little maintenance. They just plain work. There are downsides to the robots though. One is that they are beaucoup bucks. Second is, that some of them still have bags that you need to clean out, a job that is easier and quicker than it seems, but that I still dread. For the first 10 seasons we had a solid type winter cover, held down with water bags. I NEVER used the manual vacuum for those first 10 years. Then I made a mistake, and got a mesh loop loc cover. I now open every year to a swamp. So I haul out the manual vacuum and send all those nasties to waste. That type of a cleanup is not the forte of a robotic cleaner. Good luck.
Tom