As written above, there are pros and cons re the gaiter thing. To each their own - personally, if they can be fitted I'll fit them. Dinged fork tubes are expensive to fix.
My TTR250 is entering its 9th year of service and is still on original seals (fingers crossed...). I've replaced its gaiters as needed.
Imo, it's not only big stuff that ruins fork tubes. Ever looked through the high-mileage windscreen of an open-road car? Its got hundreds of little shrapnel marks from road crap. Unprotected fork tubes suffer the same fate, and that shortens seal life.
Just my 2c...