Earlier quoted context omitted.
No idea what you mean. I'm on Ventura (13.1), just opened Preview and under File there's still 'Export as PDF' alive and well.
You're right - I am not sure what I was (mis)remembering ... However, I note that "export to pdf" is grayed out for a file that is already a PDF ... which I don't remember being the case ...
Just… use the existing file.