Pods 2.5 optimizations work

This is a general PR for all the 2.x-optimizations work done so far by @jamesgol / @pglewis; to ensure we can see a full big picture of the changes. This will make it easier to review everything as it currently is (or becomes) and I can comment on the difference lines.
Yep I know that, that's why I made the changes.  I saw a decent amount of time being used on pods_sanitize that was unnecessary.  I wasn't going to make the changes all over the code, just in places that are heavily used