Step 5b's prose said "Page count is not checked here - that is
verify_pdf.py --pages's job, and Step 5d already runs it", and
verify_layout.py's docstring declines to measure page count for the same
reason. Step 5d's only verify_pdf.py call is --dump-text, and no step in
the workflow passed --pages at all (only the upstream-only CI assertion on
the stock examples does), so the hard 2-page CV and 1-page cover letter
limits were enforced by nothing but the visual PDF read - the "measure
first, then look" failure 5b was written to stop.
5b now runs verify_pdf.py --pages 2 on the CV and --pages 1 on the cover
letter ahead of verify_layout.py, names the ACTIVE-TEMPLATE page limit as
the substitute for a custom template, and the deferral sentence points at
those lines instead of at 5d.
tests/test_apply_page_count.py pins the invocations, their counts, their
order relative to the layout measurement, and that no prose defers the
check to a step that does not run it; all four cases fail on master.