Thanks, this is becoming clearer.
It looks like at this point it would probably be best to dig into c++ a bit to solve problems at this level.
I think for my current project it isn’t necessary because even my original beginner code is still within tolerable levels for target platform (pc).
However, I think for the next project I ought to see if I can learn enough to setup some subsystems - seems like something that could come in handy especially for a game where I am trying to be a lot more careful about memory usage.