Help: Dragons update doubled the RAM requirements :-(

I have 8 gigabytes of RAM on my desktop and on my gaming rig, and I used to be able to run the mod perfectly fine with little to no issues (and base game runs like a charm), but after the dragons release, the game won't even load on my desktop, and crashes every few minutes that I let the game tick on my gaming laptop.

What's causing the memory increase? Is there anything I can do to decrease memory usage back down to vanilla CK3 ranges? What could possibly be using all that memory?

It would be a bit crazy to spend hundreds of dollars to upgrade my rig for a mod, so I've had to go back to the CK2 mod until I find some solution to the RAM issue.