API response compression & payload optimization

[rohitdash08]

Reduce payload size and improve response times.

Acceptance Criteria

• Production ready implementation
• Includes tests
• Documentation updated

[a827681306]

/attempt #129

I'll implement this with full test coverage and documentation. PR incoming shortly.

[zhaog100]

/attempt #129

Implementing API response compression:

• Gzip middleware for Flask
• JSON payload optimization (remove nulls, minify)
• Configurable compression threshold
• Content-Encoding header support

Starting immediately.