Why doesn't lsyncd work when adding a symlink to exclude?

Question

linux

The situation is as follows. The distribution server has a web/files symlink that I want to exclude from sync. At the same time, on the receiving server, I want this directory to be (I created it in advance). My config:

sync {
  -- common
  default.rsyncssh,
  delete = false, --<== удалять файлы на удаленном сервере.
  source="/home/www/productive/current",
  host = "94.217.184.112", 
  targetdir="/home/www/new",
  rsyncOps={"-azS", "--rsh=ssh -l root", "--temp-dir=/tmp"},
  exclude={
    '/.git',
    '/web/robots.txt',
    '/runtime',
    '/web/assets',
    '/web/uploads',
    '/web/images',
    '/web/files',
  },
}

When starting synchronization, it gives an error:
cannot delete non-empty directory: web/files
could not make way for new symlink: web/files
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c (1070) [sender=3.0.9]
I don't understand why the server is trying to delete web/files at all and where is it trying to do it? . Deleting files on the receiving server is disabled, just in case, set the option delete = false. I remove from exclude web / files - the error still does not go anywhere. What can be wrong?