server_audit plugin locks mutex for every event when server_audit_logging=OFF

The server_audit plugin uses the lock_operations mutex to perform various operations in a mutually exclusive manner:

https://github.com/MariaDB/server/blob/mariadb-10.3.7/plugin/server_audit/server_audit.c#L544

As far as I can tell, this mutex is locked for every audit event, even when server_audit_logging=OFF is set. We can see that the mutex is locked here:

https://github.com/MariaDB/server/blob/mariadb-10.3.7/plugin/server_audit/server_audit.c#L1989

And the code doesn't check whether logging is enabled until a few lines later:

https://github.com/MariaDB/server/blob/mariadb-10.3.7/plugin/server_audit/server_audit.c#L2021

Is it absolutely necessary to do it this way? It seems as though users would pay a performance penalty to have the audit plugin installed if they have a lot of concurrent connections, even if server_audit_logging=OFF is set.

It looks like the only way to prevent the mutex from being locked for every audit event is to uninstall the plugin with UNINSTALL PLUGIN / UNINSTALL SONAME:

https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/uninstall-plugin/

https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/uninstall-soname/