Just for reference, the problem is that the macros $GTE, $LTE, etc. were designed to be used in text mode, not in math mode. In math mode, all the LaTeX macros (e.g. \geq, \leq) are available and should be used. So when I setup the OVA and AMI images, I edited the basic macros file so these work as intended and made a note of this --- see https://webwork.maa.org/wiki/WeBWorK_2.16_Ubuntu_Server_20.04_LTS_Virtual_Machine_Image#PGbasicmacros.pl
and
However this breaks problems where the author uses $GTE, etc. in math mode. If you edit the problem using \geq in place of $GTE, etc. the problem will display correctly. But is is probably easier to do what you did and hope users don't run into $GTE, etc. being used in text mode.