No, No, No, No........  What is odd about your string that causes a NULL result ??
SELECT @SomeVar produces a different string that this which can be seen in the declaration,...

I curious as to what is the QOD for Oct 12 ??  OH Wait there it is.. 🙂
But how  did that happen ?

Is there EVER a realistic reason to create a column such as that ?, certainly not in a production OLTP database ?

got it right and got it wrong
MicroSoft !!

Thank you.  It's like a light bulb just went ON...
I do remember that now and when I read it it made no sense, but all of a sudden now. ...

So why is it that with all the Implicit conversions that SQL can do, something, that to me seems so simple, has never been made addressed ?

Great Question.  However...
Are these newer Recommendations...