How to import/place SVG vector images in Pages 12?

Allegedly, Pages 14.X already fully supports SVG images, as explained on the following very simple, basic tutorial, which, however, shows how easy it is: Add an image in Pages on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

That's great for those whom Apple deems worthy of running their latest operating systems and applications, which, sadly, it's not my case; I'm lucky to be able to get Pages 12.

Searching around the Web (including here) shows that vector graphics support in Pages 12 is essentially limited to one single format: PDF. So you have to convert all your tiny SVGs into huge PDFs (possibly using Safari, since web browsers happily open SVG) just to import them in Pages... and, even so, you need to apply a few tricks to get them to show properly (e.g., the background will be white, from the PDF... you will have to make it transparent... you might need to have to place your PDF on top of some other shape, to see it properly... and, of course, you cannot change its colours).

Is there any other way of doing the same?

I'm actually fond of Pages, because it's so lightweight, and does 90% of what I need (which is far more than, say, Canva does). But it's those very stupid, annoying limitations that drive me to insanity.

Note that a cool workaround, for instance, would be to allow SF Symbols to import your SVGs into a private collection, and, from there, just drag & drop them onto Pages. Simple! But no. SF Symbols is an awesome tool, but every SVG I wish to drag & drop there (because it allows that) will fail with the "Errors: The template version number must be present in the SVG file." Sigh. Anyone has any clue about what is the "template version number" and how to place it there in a format that SF Symbols understands? (Ok, I guess that should be a separate question for another thread)