The best way to parse pdfs is to convert them to images and feed them into the llm.

This workflow is highly optimized.

For sure there are very optimized ways to do it. My point is that a non technical user will drag and drop a pdf into a chatbot. and from a UX/product perspective, they should have to think about it more than that IMO. but seemingly, that's very much an expensive, inefficient way of doing it (burning through a whole context window try to read it, reloading it multiple times per conversation, etc.).

Absolutely this. Never try to parse a native PDF document with any expectation of coherence or consistency.