I've been fixated on this part that getRows should invoke getTotalRows all the time. But if they are both automatic, they both trigger on the filter changes. I'll just have to remember to trigger them both in case they are not triggered by an input that changed.
That fixes the infinite loop. But I still can't wrap my head around why there's an infinite loop when getRows triggers getTotalRows 
I'm happy I got this working though. Thanks a lot!
(so not short sighted at all. It seems it has fixed my problem 
)