Hi,
Can you confirm, a major reason to have PFC is so that , for example, if you are on a 16A mains circuit.....then if you dont have PFC, then having an equipment that consumes 230V * 16A, is going to blow the fuses or trip the breakers?.....due to the high Apparent power drawn with non-PFC'd circuits ...(due to all the reactive current flow).
Whereas if PFC'd, you wouldnt trip those breakers.
this is perhaps the major reason that pfc front ends are used, reducing harmonics reduces the rms current drawn by equipment, the typical cap input filter has a PF of only 0.6 - 0.65, so where a pfc would draw 10A - the non pfc would draw closer to 15.6A. This is not to say the overall efficiency is higher, but the practical utility is.
Most people have little idea of the peaky input current drawn only near the mains peak of a cap input filter - which causes flat topping of the mains and triplen currents to build up in supply transformers ( in the neutral )
This is possibly the most important reason why pfc front ends are utilized; decreasing harmonics lowers the rms current used by devices.
For more information about circuit breakers, you can check out this article: https://bde-ltd.com/circuit-breaker-protection-devices-basics/