grepq v1.1.6 is more than 1000 times faster than the venerable grep, and 11 times faster than ripgrep. Both grep and ripgrep, being general purpose tools, will search the entire file, including the quality scores. Occassionally, targets will 'lurk' in quality scores, leading to false positives.
grepq also has a tune subcommand to analyze matched target strings and update the number and/or order of regex patterns in your pattern file according to their matched frequency. This can further speed up the filtering process.
grepq v.1.1.9 released today, bringing JSON support for pattern file input and tune subcommand output, allowing named regex sets and named regex patterns. gzip support was added in v.1.1.8
Might be worth adding a few of the tidbits from your README that emphasize the benefits of your tool over typical
grep
.