Nothing is added to it, only use is as \@sqltt. I'm thinking this is a "do not do" thing.

It still depends on the surrounding code - if it's being passed to a function that expects an arrayref, then some form of such is required, either my @sqltt = (<<EOF); ... func(\@sqltt), my $sqltt = [<<EOF]; ... func($sqltt), or my $sqltt = <<EOF; ... func([$sqltt]) would be needed (which one is a matter of taste), and "do not do" wouldn't necessarily apply. Context matters :-)