[..] and so any consecutive spaces are collapsed.
This is simply not true:
//var %x = $regsubex(abc,/./g,$chr(32)) | echo -ag length: $len(%x)
length: 3
Hey Sat. I figured out why I made this faux pas. Because
'/bset -t &binvar 1 %string' doesn't preserve spaces, and $regsub didn't support &binvar either. I just articulated this wrong.