> Here I should note that Python is not the best choice for CPU-bound software. I want to take the opportunity to learn Zig.

For optimizing CPU-bound operations in Python, there’s some low hanging fruit with numba. I would recommend this as a 5-minute solution to you limiting your algorithm because regular Python is too slow. I regularly tell people that if their Python program is slow enough to take several minutes, you could probably learn numba before it finishes.

PyPy is an option too.

Nice advice