> This is annoying though, since we're forced to perform an eta-expansion of bar just to avoid the syntax error that `$foo = bar;` gives.

> It's like writing `0+$n` to avoid getting a syntax error when writing `$n`; completely unnecessary, and most likely a bug in the parser.

Maybe we differ on where the problem lies; "a quoting problem" sounds like you think the script is at fault; I would say that the PHP language/implementation is at fault.