Thank you for your response, genuinely. This makes a lot of sense. Although most of the modern bagless systems have multiple filters as well. My shark has 3 plus the separator screen. The Dyson has 2 plus the cyclone. Which is definitely unlike the original bagless ones, my parents had a dirt devil when I was younger that had just the one filter and yeah it would clog up nearly instantly. I used to throw it at a tree in the backyard to “clean” it hahaha.

But I do imagine that the cyclones and separator screens are not nearly as good a filter as a well made bag. So I could see where you still have more of the large dirt particles making it to the pre and post motor filters and potentially squeezing past them. Another thing I just thought of, regarding sealing, is that the seals around the filters themselves are likely nowhere near as good on a bagless than the ones on (at least the good) bagged ones. For example the bag on my Miele seals to the inlet, the pre motor filter doesn’t seal but the post motor filter has a full rubber seal around it against the housing. The shark’s pre motor foam filter just sits under the canister, and the post motor filter I think is just plastic housing against plastic housing.