what features would need to be removed to help python hit a baseline level of performance? adding typing? Some of the “functional” stuff. Is the performance a legacy issue or essential to the language’s design?

From my limited understanding, the C interop is the biggest obstacle to both JIT and GIL. It's also the feature that makes Python fast enough for so many use cases. And the dynamic typing is the reason it even has to be JIT instead of just pre-compiled.