The Solution:
It is perfectly possible to stream both regular and pls files with a fairly simple program.
Here's what came out in a later thread.
I had no idea you could use sout in vlc_args.
I really wish I'd known that 3 weeks ago, or that someone had mentioned it earlier.
It's perfect and does exactly what I want.
Now just by adding: "--sout=#transcode{acodec=mp3,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=44100,mux=mp3}:http{dst=:8090/file.mp3}"
to my list of vlc args, I can use the usual media player and media list player to stream both individual mp3 files, as well as any pls files.
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=90423