Being rigorous with memory management is boring and repetitive -- and "bloats" my code by ~20% -- but, it's worth it...
But, because I learned coding on an original Apple][ and Tandy's "Trash-80" -- where every byte of their minuscule memory was precious -- I must admit to being a fanatic about "tight" code and runtime memory management, as well as rigorously "cleaning house" before my app shuts down. YMMV...'-)
The hidden independent processor has very little to do with memory management for the app processor or even the system housekeeping routines that run at root. It appears to be a processor that allows complete access to the computer without an OS even having been booted, or even being installed for that matter, so a remote manager can access the machine to repair or even installing a new OS remotely, regardless of whether or not a system has ever been installed or not.
That being said, this hidden independent processor IS built in to the Intel processor itself and is dependent on other computer system logic board and peripherals to be accessed, i.e. just existing on the Intel processor is, in and of itself not a risk. The Logicboard and peripherals chosen must permit the external access before there is any risk of outside vulnerability to the computer.
I was looking at the list of hardware manufacturers who use these processors that Intel itself had listed as vulnerable and noticed a blatant Intel chip user that was absent from that list: Apple. Although Apple Macs can run Windows and Linux, Apple's hardware does not use BIOS as part of their normal startup procedure, instead it runs an Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) which may not support the Management Engine access in the Intel processor, or which has the ME switched off by default.