I found it a bit tricky to get the bumper skin off the first time doing it, mostly due to the hard to reach screws behind the side marker lights. But I HIGHLY recommend doing this DIY. I decided to purchase the mesh from forum member Matthew, and he was very helpful. Absolutely, if doing this you should remove the intake housing, and partially remove the AC condensers. You may have vacuumed from the front before - thinking you cleaned everything out - but the amount of debris between the AC and radiators was amazing. I'm so glad I did this. As said above, no worries about airflow restriction with the mesh - it can't be worse than what the debris was doing.
Here are a few pics:
