Is there additional evidence for this ideograph? I ask, because the glyph in the evidence looks like 里 enclosed in Western-style single smart quotes.

We don't have another example of this particular character on hand, but this simplified form is found in a number of characters. For example: U+529E 办 < 辦; U+32957 𲥗 < 閒; U+31E33 𱸳 < 𧗱. Typically, it indicates that a surrounding component has been simplified. VN-F2040, is a dialect form of "lẽ", meaning "reason", ultimately from Chinese 理. In this case it's a simplification of 𨤧 U+28927 and the two strokes on either side of 里 represent the two strokes, 丿and 丶 on either side of the vertical in 尔. In retrospect, we could have normalized this to ⿻里八, as in other examples.