X11 Not Forwarding over SSH ($DISPLAY not getting set)

Turns out the guidance here is correct.

However, I did run into a unique issue that may help others. I started troubleshooting with -vvv and because there was so much data, I missed a critical warning (lesson learned is to start broader (-v)). The host key for the server changed (new build) and I disabled key checking in my ssh_config, so because it was a mismatched key X11 forwarding was disabled by SSH.

Have you tried using ssh -Y to connect? It appears X11 forwarding still isn't happening and you're it attempts to run remote X programs locally instead of remotely using your local display.