Reference counting is a form of GC to use when performance doesn't matter. Performance never matters except where it does. But automated memory management without reference counting is usual practice in a modern non-GC language.

Freeing an array of objects only involves a series of calls to a deallocator when the array elements have pointers in them. That is typically unavoidable in Java, but not in non-GC languages.

Arena allocation, where memory in a subsystem is allocated using a specific allocator object, deallocation there is an in-line no-op, and all of subsystem memory is reclaimed en bloc at a chosen event boundary, is a common alternative where more control is needed. It is still not "manual memory management"; memory for objects is managed invisibly, and still without reference counting.

The usual advertising for GC is that it means you don't need to think about managing memory. The actual experience is that, where it matters at all, you have to think about it a great deal more.