For the scenario of XXX @{A1}, with A1 as a repeating attribute of [Val1, Val2, Val3], you end up with a string of [XXX Val1{@@}Val2{@@}Val3], which then turns into the values [XXX Val1, Val2, Val3]
And if you wrote something like XXX @{A1} YYY, you'd end up with [XXX Val1,Val2,Val 3 YYY].
Ideal output for first scenario: [XXX Val1,XXX Val2,XXX Val3]
Ideal output for second scenario:
[XXX Val1 YYY,XXX Val2 YYY,XXX Val3 YYY]