Zsh does not split words by default, so you don't need to quote everything. This is the main reason I switch to Zsh instead of Bash when there I need a bit more than the base shell.
> A command enclosed in parentheses preceded by a dollar sign, like `$(...)', or quoted with grave accents, like ``...`', is replaced with its standard output, with any trailing newlines deleted. If the substitution is not enclosed in double quotes, the output is broken into words using the IFS parameter. https://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/programming/linux/zsh-doc/zsh_15...