Consider deprecating old parsers API

**Problem**
When working with utils, the error messages could be more descriptive.

**Suggestion**
Improve error handling and add detailed error messages.

**Context**
This would help with debugging and maintenance.

Start by locating the utils code involved in the reported error messages and trace the current error-handling paths. Compare the existing output with the debugging needs described in the issue; done means the relevant failures produce detailed, descriptive messages and the affected behavior is verified.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.