Empty deletion bug for cell arrays?

These code lines are okay in MATLAB R2017a:

x = {[]};
x{1}([]) = [];

But the following give an error ("Deletion requires an existing variable."):

x = cell(1);
x{1}([]) = [];

Can anyone tell me the difference?

Regards Jonas

[Adam]

Strange. It's odd syntax in the first place, but when I put both those in R2019b, naming the second one as y I get the same error as you, for the 2nd one only, but also:

>> isequal( x, y )
ans =
  logical
   1