I had a Deere with the standard bagger and it was not worth a darn if grass was damp or tall, the grass chute was always clogging up. At that time they had a bagger that had a suction fan mounted to the chute and I always wished I had got that one but I don't know how well it worked since I never met anyone that had one.

Yes, the induction fan driven off the mower deck is the way to go if they offer it for that particular model. But it's pricey at between $500 and $900. The two bagger fan model I have on my JD zero turn works very well and only clogs if I don't empty the bags in time (duh). That said, I also had an MTD lawn tractor with std. 2-bagger (no fan) and had very little problem with clogging, unless the grass was pretty damp. I always mowed when it was dry though so was rarely an issue.

I have had both older style JD baggers (from the '80's) and newer style (2001) and found a big improvement in the newer style - seldom clogs unless I let the bag get too full, or mow too fast in high damp grass. These are both 2-bag non-fan baggers. The early versions have shaped chutes and the later ones have clean round chutes with a red flow indicator that gives you a cue if it is starting to clog. I use the bagger and a 42" deck in spring and fall (Boston area) to really clean up the yard, and then switch to a Freedom 42 dedicated mulching deck for the rest of the season. The Freedom does a great job with no bagging required, but you can't pick up lawn debris, leaves, etc. with it. Many folks seem to like the mulching kits you can add to a standard deck that eliminate bagging in most cases, and might be a good way for you to limit your bagging for a lot of the season. In any case, on your original question, I would not worry much about a current JD bagger with a little care in using it.

Clogging is generally a problem with damp or tall grass. Another problem is attaching the shute to the mower deck. After 30-40 years of producing riding mowers with baggers, you would think they would design a more user friendly way of attaching the shute to the deck. They should be ashamed of their lack of engineering a better shute system.