Why I think < and > just needs to be one symbol

So here's a little math lesson for you.

this < means less than
while
this > means greater than

No need to applaud, I know I'm your greatest hero.

Both of these symbols drive me crazy. Because:

this side means the larger number, thing, etc. > while this side is the smaller or lesser of the two.

Or a better diagram that I don't have the patience to make, it came from here (see below).

Why!?! If the eating side (I found the time to make this one because it's funny) always means it's the bigger number. Why do we have to do the flippy flippy?

If someone could explain this to me I would be grateful because right now it seems really dumb to flip it over to mean the opposite when the open end always means it's the bigger number.

Okay, after writing this post and thinking about it (especially that last sentence) I get it. I still think it's stupid.