TTY console problem - screen is completely filled with "<" symbols

You are right, of course, but in the topic “[Stable update] 2026-01-04” kernel 5.4.302 is still present:

Our current supported kernels

  • linux54 5.4.302 [EOL]*

The previous version kernel 5.4.299 does not have this problem.
This means regression. It is unlikely that the EOL-kernel will be fixed.
But maybe there is a workaround?