Significant Site Slowdown Caused by avia_deep_decode Function in Enfold Theme –

I’m experiencing major performance issues on a WordPress site I’m working on that runs the Enfold theme. When analyzing performance diagnostics with New Relic, I consistently see the avia_deep_decode function appearing as a bottleneck.
Details:

• The avia_deep_decode function is frequently flagged in New Relic performance reports
• It appears to be significantly slowing down page load times
• I’m working on optimizing this site and this function appears to be a major blocker

Questions:

• What is the purpose of the avia_deep_decode function in Enfold?
• Is it safe to disable or modify this function to improve performance?
• Are there any recommended alternatives or optimizations for this function?

Additional Information:

I’ve examined the comment above the avia_get_option function (\wp-content\themes\enfold\framework\php\function-set-avia-frontend.php) which has a $decode argument that is supposed to be false by default, however currently it is set to default to true. I’d like to know if setting this parameter to false would be a safe approach to improve performance, as it would bypass the avia_deep_decode function that’s causing the slowdown.

Are there specific scenarios where decoding is absolutely necessary?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated as I’m trying to improve the site’s speed without compromising functionality.

Thank you!