If the path to the dir is longer than $HOME, say, $HOME/Tools/modding/hd2-audio-modder/wwise/v123456789_idr_but_its_a_long_one/random file name with spaces, it makes more sense.

I’ll try using the braces syntax, if it does prevent word splitting I wasn’t aware of it, though it’s still slightly inconvenient (3 key inputs for each brace on my kb) and I’d probably still use quotes instead if I had to use Bash and had the file path in a variable for some reason.

… though at this point I’m probably overthinking it, atm I don’t recall better examples of my distaste for Bash expansion shenanigans.

Did some testing, here’s what I found.
Beware, it devolves into a rant against Bash and has little to do with the original topic - I just needed to scream into the void a little.

# Zsh
function argn { echo $#; }

var='spaced string'
argn $var
# Prints 1: makes sense, no word splitting here

var=(array 'of strings')
argn $var
# Prints 2: makes sense, I'm using a 2-wide array where I would
#           want 2 arguments (the second one happens to have
#           a whitespace in it)

# Bash
function argn { echo $#; }

var='spaced string'
argn $var
# Prints 2: non-array variable gets split in 2 with this simple reference;
#           I hate it, but hey, it is what it is

argn ${var}
# Prints 2: no, braces do not prevent word splitting as I think you suggested

var=(array 'of strings')
argn $var
# Prints 1: ... what?

echo $var
# Prints array: ... what?!?
#               It implicitly takes the first element?
#               At least it doesn't word-split said first element, right?

var=('array of' strings)
argn $var
# Prints 2: