Flash CS5 - Stage Size Limitation?

Question

i've created large vector graphics in Illustrator to be imported in Flash as display assets.

the application i'm building will target different screen sizes (including Television with AIR 2.5) and the display assets will be scaled down at runtime to fit the target screen.

the largest of vector graphic imports is 5000 x 1250 pixels. however, i can't import the graphic (either as a native vector or a bitmap conversion) because of the stage size limitation in Flash Professional CS5:

from the flash.display.BitmapData class documentation:

In AIR 1.5 and Flash Player 10, the maximum size for a BitmapData object is 8,191 pixels in width or height, and the total number of pixels cannot exceed 16,777,215 pixels. (So, if a BitmapData object is 8,191 pixels wide, it can only be 2,048 pixels high.) In Flash Player 9 and earlier and AIR 1.1 and earlier, the limitation is 2,880 pixels in height and 2,880 in width.

i'm targeting Air 2.5 for the Publish Settings Player and i still can not increase the stage size above 2880 x 2880 or import graphics larger than 2880 x 2880.

if the BitmapData limitation has been increased for Flash Player 10 and AIR 1.5 or higher, why can't i import graphics and/or increase the size of the stage within that limit?