Oh, please help with EXPORT to Word or Pages OR text on MAC

I'M ON A MAC STUDIO WITH TONS OF RAM USING SONOMA. IM WORKING IN ACROBAT PRO 2024 ETC. The document is 3,000 words. I have five of them I have to convert to an editable Word or Pages doc.

In Acrobat I make it searchable and editable. I've tried compressing it and not compressing it. The problems are the same.

I export to Word. The only reasonable option provided. (I've tried exporting to RTF but the document is a complete mess.)

Unfortunately, when I open the Word document, the app just hangs. Spinning beachball, forever, even tho the text looks pretty good.

I've found I can open the Word document in Pages with no problems. 

However, every few lines shows a paragraph end. So I get text that separates like that in the attached image.

Unfortunately, Pages will not let me search and replace those particular pasragraph endings.

If I export to Text or  RTF I get the same problem

IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN TO IN ACROBAT TO GET RID OF THAT PARAGRAPH END MARK WHEN I EXPORT IT TO A TEXT EDITING APP? I'm attaching a screen shot of my editable Acrobat doc and a screen shot of what happens when it exports to a text editor. FIRST IS ACROBAT