Development field causes slower REST search performance

Problem

REST search endpoint used to be slow. However it got even slower somewhere between 7.6.10 and 7.13.0

Even single calls take ~1700 ms on 7.6.10:

while it's above 2000ms on 7.13:

When doing proper performance test it shows regression is ~25%:

The content of response differs by 100 lines out of 78k lines of response:

Cause

By default, if no fields are specified when searching via REST, all fields are returned. As of Jira 7.7, the "Development" field was introduced to provide the ability for users to search information related to the Development Panel. The result is that this field is included whenever REST searches are performed and causing the longer response times.

Workarounds

When performing REST api searches, ensure to specify the fields:

• Request fields without "Development" custom field. Example:

  {base_url}/rest/api/2/search?jql=text%20~%20task\&fields=summary,description,reporter,assignee
  

When performing searches via the UI, an admin can remove the "Development" field from the system default: