I tend to do this, mostly because replication is fragile and it's often easier to rebuild than fix something that's broken.

Ah, that's a parenthesis, but thanks for the catch.

I see brackets at [], braces as {} and parens as ()

We debated this. It's turned off because people will often post something, get an answer, and then delete the thread. Our goal is to avoid that. If they can edit,...

Just tested on SQL 2016. Copyonly backup full + log from main db works fine.

You should be able to. The copy only backup merely prevents resets for the diff map. A normal restore chain should apply.

Playoffs, am I out of my misery now?

I'm not seeing it. Where is a missing bracket?

I am hesitant to include these unless they are used in other queries as well, but as Lynn mentioned, without more information, it's hard to make a good recommendation either...

I was just thinking a  test since this worked for someone else.