I just ran into this problem as well but found another solution.
I found that wrapping the code blocks with a asp:PlaceHolder-tag solves the problem.
<asp:PlaceHolder runat="server">
<meta name="ROBOTS" content="<%= this.ViewData["RobotsMeta"] %>" />
</asp:PlaceHolder>
(The CMS I'm using is inserting into the head-section from some code behind which restricted me from adding custom control blocks with various information like meta-tags etc so this is the only way it works for me.)