Using Grafana variables in JSONata field if panel repeat is activated

[LukasK13]

I'm having a panel that is repeated for a Grafana variable (let's call it variable1).
In my JSON query, I want to check, if the result array contains an object with the attribute user that is equal to the iterated value of variable1:

$count($.items[user = $variable1[0]])

However, the values of variable1 are not being iterated even though the panel repeat options are set to variable1. The line $variable1[0] always returns the first entry of the array variable1 and not the iterated value.
How can I get this to work or is this behavior by design?