[FreeHugs]

The time is spent in this 3-line loop:

    for poly in polygon_subset:
        if np.linalg.norm(poly.center - point) < max_dist:
            close_polygons.append(poly)

I don't think the entire feature set of the Python runtime is involved in this.

[ben-schaaf]

Without using every feature you still have to conform to the complexity of the runtime. Every variable in that loop is a hash map lookup into the locals. `np.linalg.norm` is two field accesses, necessitating more hash map lookups on the module objects. `-` and `<` are attribute lookups as well as full function calls.

[wizzwizz4]

> Every variable in that loop is a hash map lookup into the locals.

No, it's a LOAD_FAST bytecode instruction. (The other stuff is mostly right, and probably contributes.)