Hi, can someone please advise what is the correct syntax for a Flow entry condition formula to check if a picklist value has NOT been selected?

I have seen many posts saying that the following formula should work, although this only appears to work for a field Validation Rule formula:

ISBLANK(TEXT(picklist_field))

When I attempt to use this syntax, I get the following error message when attempting to debug the flow:

Unfortunately, there was a problem. Please try again. If the problem continues, get in touch with your administrator with the error ID shown here and any other related details. Error ID: 1972618629-108722 (2126388401)

I have data in a Long Text Area field that has carriage returns that have been manually entered by a user:
e.g.

Phone: 4943832342
Email: a@b.com

When I render this data to a PDF via a VF page, however, the data is displayed including line break tags!
e.g.

Phone: 4943832342 <br/> Email: a@b.com

VF code that is rendering this field is as follows:

<apex:outputText value="{!Order.Notes__c}" />

How can I get the VF page to render the line breaks correctly in the PDF?