IGP Pool Startup Question ?

Hi Everyone, curious if someone can provide their thoughts on my opening procedure. I grew up with a pool that I maintained for 20 years and it had a solid cover with the pillows - I would open it and literally be able to jump in the same day, it was easy. The pool that I've been dealing with for the last 12 years has a loop lock and has much more shade and leaf litter. When I open it, it's a swamp - water is black. Here is what I usually do:

I start the pool with an old set of filter grids to begin without any DE - >
Get the PH right - not always easy given condition of the pool - >
Leaf Rake bottom of the pool to get stuff out ->
Vacuum on waste for as long as I can to get the water to the right level - I usually have the hose filling the pool while I'm doing this. I usually get more of the big stuff out.
Switch grids - this is usually a couple days later - > Add DE
I then add liquid chlorine -> Here is my issue, my CYA is always high (between 80 & 90). I use an automatic chlorinator and I do use the 3" trichlor pucks
In order to reach breakpoint chlorination based upon my CYA, I sometimes need to add 50 gallons of chlorine over a several days. My pool is 43k gallons

So my question - Is there any other way of doing this ? I suspect I'm going to hear to stop using the pucks and lower the CYA, but I'm just curious if there might be a better method given the current circumstances. If a pro service came to my home to open my pool, what would they do differently ?

Appreciate the responses as always ! Thank you !