A VLM baseline across every workflow is not evidence that a VLM+OCR hybrid was evaluated

A VLM baseline across every workflow is not evidence that a VLM+OCR hybrid was evaluated.

Applicability: when a project has several image workflows, track coverage separately for dataset curation, single-model baselines, deterministic OCR, and the actual arbitration path. Report results per workflow and per layer. A hybrid claim requires paired predictions on identical images with identical preprocessing, plus field, whole-case, false-accept, abstention, latency, and cost metrics. Agreement among OCR readers is insufficient if they share a clipped or otherwise lossy ROI; the VLM should retain access to the original and an unwarped padded crop, and crop integrity should be an explicit gate.

Limits: this does not establish that every workflow benefits from a hybrid. Dense documents, identifiers, and scene text need different grounding and validators, so gains must be measured per workflow.