The fixed MAX_POOL_SIZE=5 cap was the source of the heap churn the pool was
meant to prevent: any device with more than 5 concurrent timers (e.g. a board
with 30+ LD2450 sensors) hit a steady-state oscillation of recycle->delete and
acquire->new on every loop iteration.
Replace std::vector<SchedulerItem*> with a singly-linked freelist threaded
through SchedulerItem::next_free, which shares storage with `component` via an
anonymous union (zero per-item overhead -- the component pointer is dead while
pooled). Drop the cap entirely: the freelist quiesces at the application's
natural concurrent-timer high-water mark, which is the working set the device
already needs while those timers are active.
No std::vector means no growth-doubling slack and no realloc copies during
warm-up. Caller of get_item_from_pool_locked_() must overwrite item->component
before unlocking (already true at the sole call site); nullptr remains a valid
live `component` value for SELF_POINTER items, so we cannot pre-clear it.
J. Nick Koston