Optimize middleware for large datasets

**Feature request**
It would be great to have filtering for core.

**Use case**
Many users need this functionality for production deployments.

**Implementation idea**
Add a new config option `enable_filtering` with default `false`.

No file, test, or entry point is named. Start by locating the middleware and configuration handling for core, then determine what filtering should include for large datasets and how production deployments should use it. Done means a documented enable_filtering option defaults to false, filtering behavior is defined and implemented, and coverage verifies both default and enabled cases.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.