Hi Michael, Thanks for reply.
I wouldn't say you are missing something, but I still look at it differently.
The Oracle doc points toward variables and examples that are actually used as literals for file names or in a statement.
Neither of which changes basic syntax for parsing owner.tablename.
I ran a similar test in our Linux environment to better illustrate the differences.
In native sql I recreated your test and valued a variable SCHEMA to a TMX (no trailing period)
I then ran the following: select distinct '$SCHEMA.TEST' from $SCHEMA.ACCOUNT;
The output below shows the literal kept the period between the variable and the dot TEST(unlike your example)
and resolved the owner table name.
No worries I guess I am the only one that complained about this. 
