This "support" person doesn't seem to know anything about the product. You want to install WS - not VMware Tools - which obviously you could not install if you can't intstall WS adn create a VM. (A small sidenote here - actually vmware-install.pl IS used to iinstall ll VMware Tools - in a Linux guest). RHEL Linux is sulpported for WS 9 at least from version 2 to version 6.
Myself I would just say to the guy (who will never give his name) that you want to escalte the problem to his supervisor. Then if his supervisor is still overseas tell him you need to escalate the problem/question to his supervisor in the US. If her balks then call the corporate number and work your way around the phone tree. What I always say here is don't speak to tech support - speak to sales.
The whole question of out-sourcing to faraway land is almost criminal (I readched a support person in India whe I called up my State Tax return people and wanted my SSN - did not give it of course - then said the question t was a software problem!).
I can't say more since its a problem of saving bucks. Your time means nothing to the company.
BTW I have run into the gtk problem on some installs and could not solve it. You can try to force a cli install (I can't give the instructions without a further search on Google or using this forum search <not recommends IMHO>. But you will probably have the same problem when you try to bring up WS GUI>