PHP reads master.conf values like STATE_DIR="${SCRIPTS_DIR}/State_Files"
literally — the ${SCRIPTS_DIR} token is never expanded, so any PHP code
using the returned STATE_DIR value got an invalid path. Two-pass resolution:
SCRIPTS_DIR first (from PHP constant), then remaining ${VAR} tokens using
the now-resolved var set (covers DATA_DIR-based paths like ARR_SYNC_BLOCKLIST).