Good Mornig,
I was a member of trek # 390 in October 2007.
I wore long gaitors – the gortex variety.
Other trekkers in our group wore short gaitors.
But
All of us wore gaitors of some variety.

None of us found them uncomfortable.
All of us agreed they were essential.

The amount of mud they kept off your legs and boots made them essential.
None of us suffered attacks from leeches, but we did see some trying to attack our gaitors.
The number of tree roots on the ground that were cleverly placed to trip you up mean that when you fall over you won't scrape your shins

In the evening we would wash our gaitors in the streams and the amount of mud that came off them was mind boggling.
In the morning we would start walking at about 6:30, so the gaitors usually hadn't dried out from the previous evening's wash and were still wet. Still they were not uncomfortable and were warm within two or three minutes walking.

My advice: buy them ( I recommend long ones), take them, wear them, wash them each night to keep the press studs from clogging up.

You won't regret having them. You probably will regret not having them.

Cheers

Wings