It seems a very significant improvement - the lag on scrolling after the buffer is loaded is not noticeable, and the initial loading hang essentially disappears!
org-cite-basic-activate 123 6.5652978389 0.0533764051
org-cite-basic--all-keys 123 6.2679872230 0.0509592457
org-cite-basic--parse-bibliography 270 6.2513217860 0.0231530436
org-cite-basic--get-entry 147 0.1550045990 0.0010544530