Why do bash parameter expansions cause an rsync command to operate differently?

Question

I am attempting to run an rsync command that will copy files to a new location. If I run the rsync command directly, without any parameter expansions on the command line, r

Answer 1

I like to break the arguments onto separate lines, for convenience sake:

ROPTIONS=(
   -aNHXxEh
   --delete
   --fileflags
   --exclude-from=$EXCLUDELIST
   --delete-excluded
   --force-change
   --stats
   --protect-args
)

and then call it thusly:

rsync "${ROPTIONS[@]}" "$SOURCE" "$DESTINATION"