The optimization process and recommendations:

1. Avoid Selecting Unnecessary Columns (query line: 9): Avoid selecting all columns with the '*' wildcard, unless you intend to use them all. Selecting redundant columns may result in unnecessary performance degradation.

The optimized query:

SELECT
        f.family_id,
        f.family_code,
        f.lname,
        f.fname,
        f.mname,
        f.exname,
        f.remark,
        p.*,
        b.*,
        m.*,
        (SELECT
            SUM(family_members.member_id != 0) 
        FROM
            family_members 
        WHERE
            family_members.family_id = f.family_id) AS MEMCOUNT 
    FROM
        family_profile f 
    LEFT JOIN
        purok p 
            ON f.home_address = p.purok_id 
    LEFT JOIN
        barangay b 
            ON p.brgy_id = b.brgy_id 
    LEFT JOIN
        municipality m 
            ON b.mun_id = m.mun_id 
    WHERE
        f.family_id != 0 
        AND f.family_code != '' 
    ORDER BY
        mun_name,
        brgy_name,
        purok_name,
        f.lname,
        f.fname