If you are short of 8k RAM on an ESP32, you probably wasted tons of memory to other things.
This is the result of a compilation for an e-paper weather display
Sketch uses 1018429 bytes (77%) of program storage space. Maximum is 1310720 bytes.
Global variables use 43180 bytes (13%) of dynamic memory, leaving 284500 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 327680 bytes.
I don't regard 327680 as very little.