There are some related posts:
But I would suggest reporting those problems to plugin manufacturers instead. They can share JUCE team with the exact JUCE version number & some code to push things forward. JUCE 8 & Direct2D performance has been improved a lot since the first JUCE 8 version (there are also some recent changes on the develop branch).
The freeze occurs even if the “trigger” plugins are bypassed with their GUIs closed, suggesting a persistent background rendering or context-holding issue within the session.
That sounds interesting. AFAIK the Direct2D context should only be active if the GUI is open, unless there is some crazy code in the plugin.