[FR]: Preallocate tiles with NumPy arrays for better performance and code clarity

[jdbcode]

Feature Summary

Replace nested list pre-allocation of 'tiles' with NumPy arrays using np.empty(shape, dtype=object). Update all tile access patterns from tiles[i][j][k] to tiles[i, j, k] for consistency and improved code readability.

Use Cases

• Enables more pythonic and efficient handling of multi-dimensional tiles and blocks.
• Reduces memory allocation overhead and potentially improves execution performance.
• Makes tile-based operations more readable and maintainable, especially for future features dependent on array shape.
• Cleaner integration of code with scientific Python ecosystem and facilitates future optimizations leveraging NumPy.

[jdbcode]

See #254 from @pvrraju for suggested implementation, e.g.,

Xee/xee/ext.py

Line 1002 in 00b2e45

tiles = np.empty(shape, dtype=object)