Create was making three sequential public HTTPS billing calls (~400ms each)
while holding a DB transaction open for image generation. Use loopback DNS
forcing, cache balances briefly, return balance from debit, regenerate images
only when style changes, and keep remote work outside the DB transaction.
Wallet balance peek rendered as a menu row directly under Billing, backed by
a /wallet/balance endpoint (BillingClient) and guarded by Route::has. Also
opens Afia via a direct window event for reliability.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>