Thus, if someone is asked to create a complex number problems with context they create the kind of hash we see here.

Of course, one can compare the modulus of one complex number to that of another. Maybe in polar form, some sort of game can be devised to make the addition somewhat more sensible, but off-hand it seems like that would be beyond the capabilities of the authors of high-stakes tests (and WELL beyond their goals and those of their masters. That, ultimately, is the point here, I think: this problem is CLASSIC pseudo-context because it’s so glaringly obviously slapped on because someone somewhere said, “Let ’em have ‘real world’ problems whenever possible.”