Yes, evergreen plants like bamboos drop litter for long periods of time each year. For planting near swimming pools you want large parted plants that won't clog pool filter intakes such as banana plants, palm trees and so forth.

Bamboo switches out a layer of old leaves for fresh ones in spring and they drop the culm leaves after the new summer growth (weird cardboard looking cones). So it's a twice a year thing - not an all year thing.

I have bamboo along much of the boarders of my property (3 different types), I find much greater value in totally screening out my neighbours and dealing with the very localised, twice a year clean up.

Another thing that could interest you is strelitzia nicolai (giant bird of paradise) which is often mistaken for banana but creates more of a wall of green. They are pretty much set-and-forget, like bamboo.

"Nightmare" is pretty subjective. I've had bamboo around ponds, installing another one now, and I don't consider the culm sheathes or leaves to be a nightmare since the skimmer has no problem collecting them and I don't mind removing them from the ground since I like working in the garden. But I certainly know lots of people who consider such things to be a nightmare...real or imagined.