I understand your reasoning perfectly, we always used to place a strainer before the hydraulic driven pumps on our sprayers, reasoning being keep the junk out and it should last longer.
But just the opposite is true, we have electronic flow and pressure monitors on our field sprayers, but that suction side screen can get just plugged enough not to effect performance but allow some cavitation in the pump, start getting a little air around the seal and goodbye $800 spray pump.