auto-pst-pdf compilation ending in error, but pdflatex will continue

[tstone-1]

During compilation of a rather large document, I run into (filename.log):

[179.193]
!pdfTeX error: pdflatex (file ./filename-pics.pdf): PDF inclusion: required pa
ge does not exist <30>
 ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

Well, page 30 in filename-pics.pdf is present and looks good to me. I'm using chemnum which itself relies on auto-pst-pdf. During the auxiliary run of auto-pst-pdf, filename-autopp.log is created - and deleted once the auxiliary run has finished. I tailed filename-autopp.log and found it to end with:

! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [pool size=2849387].
\tl_if_blank:nF ...\exp_after:wN {\use_none:n #1?}
                                                  \scan_stop: \__prg_F_true:...
l.218 ... von etwa \SI{10}{\angstrom} abgebildet.}
                                                  
If you really absolutely need more capacity,
you can ask a wizard to enlarge me.

So, the regular compilation will continue even if the auxiliary compilation has ended with an error. The filename.log will then itself end with an error message that is rather useless in error analysis, especially because filename-autopp.log has already been deleted at this point.

I referred to this question and ran initexmf --edit-config-file=pdflatex, added

buf_size = 10000000
extra_mem_bot = 10000000
extra_mem_top = 10000000
main_memory = 10000000
pool_size = 10000000

to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\miktex\config\pdflatex.ini. Saved the file and ran initexmf --dump=pdflatex. However, the problem persists as described. However, when editing %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Programs\MiKTeX\miktex\config\texmfapp.ini and setting buf_size, extra_mem_bot, extra_mem_top, main_memory, and pool_size to 10000000, respectively, the document will compile as expected. However, this file is forcefully 'repaired' by MiKTeX package manager once the distribution is updated.

I then referred to the manual of auto-pst-pdf and found that the auxiliary run invokes latex instead of pdflatex. Thus, I did the described adjustments to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\miktex\config\latex.ini and found a solution to the problem.

TL;DR: Shouldn't the whole compilation process end in error once the auto-pst-pdf auxiliary run fails?