BUG-592: Optimize equals() a bit

This commit optimizes the equals() method by attempting to bypass the
full check of iterables by looking at cached state that is derived from
them.

Change-Id: I10b6e7164874992ae0dc041cffd934d292e61694
Signed-off-by: Robert Varga <rovarga@cisco.com>
BUG-592: Migrate users to new build() method

The static builder method is deprecated, move users off of it.

Change-Id: I2b6758c13e2eb4c6357b97f37de327594a1a7faf
Signed-off-by: Robert Varga <rovarga@cisco.com>