Why are not all paths properly mapped when running a PHP script via SSH?

My development setup consists of a Windows PC with a Linux virtual machine that runs PHP. PHPStorm connects via SSH to the VM and executes scripts. Lately I noticed an odd thing - only SOME paths are mapped when a script is run. For example:

Let's say I keep my project at "C:\Projects\foo" and in my VM "C:\Projects" is mapped as "/bar". Now let's suppose I run a PHP script via RUN/Debug configurations. In addition I want to pass in a path to a config file as a parameter. What I see in the debug window is:

"[sshConfig://user@localhost:2222 password]:/usr/bin/php" /bar/foo/magic.php -c C:/Projects/foo/magic_config.json

Notice that it correctly mapped "magic.php" to its location in the virtual machine. However in the parameter, the config file is still referenced by its Windows file name. If I take a look at the .run.xml file I see:

<configuration path="$PROJECT_DIR$/magic.php" scriptParameters="-c $PROJECT_DIR$/magic_config.js">

This looks like it should be correct, but the end result is obviously not. I tried other variables in place of $PROJECT_DIR$, but none worked.

Is this by design or is this a bug? Is there a way to work around it?

Note: I could just hardcode the full path to the configfile without any variables, however then I cannot share my .run.xml with other colleagues who have different setups.