The reason is that the code which reads the macro lines doesn't use the "tokenizer" to find reserved words and identifiers, so it won't be able to detect "dotted directives" without OPTION DOTNAME.
With each JWasm version I try to make these things more consistent, but it's not "finished" yet.
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Yes, I'm aware of this little flaw.
There's a workaround: add OPTION DOTNAME.
The reason is that the code which reads the macro lines doesn't use the "tokenizer" to find reserved words and identifiers, so it won't be able to detect "dotted directives" without OPTION DOTNAME.
With each JWasm version I try to make these things more consistent, but it's not "finished" yet.