i also now realize that i didn't explain the process i used above well enough in that, once phaelax parser was complete, i used dom.Save("iati.json") to export it.
and, i did try using his Types to reload:
//RestoreApp()
MyArray as XML_Element[]
MyArray.Load( "iati.json" )
...which is where the pause occurred and my belief that the file
was loaded before it proceeded to my Do/Loop containing Print(dom.length) which yielded the -1 result.
(aside: the xml was parsed under MinimizeApp() which proved
much faster and, once parsing was complete, RestoreApp() (in the snippet) was called to let me know it was finished - could this have some averse effect?).
as far as the limitation, PHeMoX's .JSON file should then be broken up into chunks and then loaded as smaller strings?