Hi @robple11 , sorry for the late reply but we just saw that your issue is being followed up here: Colibri iMX8, how to include dnsmasq when compiling the kernel
To specify a bit more on your particular question, depending on the process it is true that can add more load to the CPU/GPU (ie. Qt app) but most daemons running are really not that impactful and you should focus your efforts on disabling devices on the device tree.
You mentioned that you don’t use screens so make sure to choose our “Minimal Image” for evaluation rather than the “Multimedia Image” since it won’t have that extra load from running the Qt app included.
Regards,
Alvaro.