Try $cell->value() which should be the formatted value of the cell.
$cell->{Val} is equivalent to $cell->unformatted(). I'm not sure there will be a difference here...but worth a try.
Comment on Re: Spreadsheet::XLSX returning < > and & instead of < > &
Thanks for the suggestion. There is no difference between the two. Both return > which leads me to believe that's how MSFT is storing it in the xlsx spreadsheets.