The space between the non-caret and caret path exists because there are really two paths. The first is the path to the element of interest in with respect to the profiled resource, and the second is the path to an element in the StructureDefinition or ElementDefinition that defines the profile.  The space also improves readability, helping to visually pick out the caret, which can be hard to see. Nor do we favor optionality (space or no space) because that creates unnecessary inconsistency between IGs. So we propose no change.