Performance and memory tuneups

[daveshanley]

After extensive profiling, I found long-standing issues with poor allocation, runtime performance, and other areas.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 99.60%. Comparing base (0ea58b9) to head (115d333).
⚠️ Report is 5 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #530      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   99.58%   99.60%   +0.01%     
==========================================
  Files         192      192              
  Lines       23886    24013     +127     
==========================================
+ Hits        23787    23918     +131     
+ Misses         61       59       -2     
+ Partials       38       36       -2     

Flag	Coverage Δ
unittests	99.60% <100.00%> (+0.01%)	⬆️

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