OK, so after writing this question I thought of at least one answer, replace
the tag identifiers with spaces. This might not be the most elegant
solution, but it works.

If you've got something better, I'd love to see it. Thanks.

Sub tester()

sTest3 = "<bhere's</b the stuff you wanted. "
sTest3 = Replace(sTest3, "", " ")
sTest3 = Replace(sTest3, "<", " ")
vSplit = Split(sTest3, " here's ")
bExactMatch = UBound(vSplit) < 0
Debug.Print "Test3: " & bExactMatch

End Sub

<snip