With the mulching out of the way, it was time to bag the leaves up with the Husqvarna. This really is that simple. Mulching them cuts them up into smaller pieces, gets rid of the majority of the standing water and lets the mass start to dry out faster. The more surface area in contact with the air, hastens the drying process.
Now of course, I'm not intending on leaving those leaves out there to dry out. I'm going to bag them up and collect them. That said, the hour or so that they are on the ground, should allow them to dry much faster than they would have if I didn't even touch them. Of course, it was raining for the 2 days prior to this, so they are completely soaked anyway.
While picking the leaves up in the bagger, you are hitting some of them again, potentially causing some of them to yet again be cut up into even finer pieces. This makes the whole pile have less volume, allowing you to pack loads more into each bag. Couple that with the loss of water, these will be lighter than they would have been if you just bagged them from the start. Ultimately, less work than raking, less time than blowing, less trips to unload the bagger and less overall weight being carried. Sounds to me like it's win, all the way around.