Its always a nice touch when the colony is surrounded by pools of blood and piles of skeletons. Feels very homey and lived-in.
Also, what’s up with the embrasure walls and what seems to be curtains? Can those be WINDOWS? In rimworld? What herecy (mod) is this?
As a person with weaker PC and some leftovers of sanity i prefer smaller amounts of colonists, but i still end up with large colonies by area. My solution for optimization is restricting colonists to their areas. They dont all need to cross the entire colony 2-3 times per day, they just get food, go to crafting station, then go to bed. Exception is haulers and construction/maintenance.