Regarding your third to last paragraph. This paper is worth looking at (probably the most recent treatment of deferred reference counting): <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cs.utexas.edu&#x2F;users&#x2F;mckinley&#x2F;papers&#x2F;rcix-oopsla-2013.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cs.utexas.edu&#x2F;users&#x2F;mckinley&#x2F;papers&#x2F;rcix-oopsla-2...</a>.