[Help-bash] Why not make address@hidden the same as `printf %q' output?

[Clark Wang]

See following example:

$ var=123
$ echo address@hidden
'123'
$ printf '%q\n' $var
123
$
$ var='1 2 3'
$ echo address@hidden
'1 2 3'
$ printf '%q\n' "$var"
1\ 2\ 3
$

Any particular reason to implement them differently?

-clark