Improve validation performance

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

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

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

The issue names no files, tests, or entry points. Start by locating configuration handling and the validation or model-selection paths; before implementation, clarify what models are filtered and what the filtering criteria should be. Done should include an `enable_filtering` option defaulting to `false` and tests for the defined behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.