Consuming applications not incorporating changes to fields when record id is unchanged

We have noticed consuming applications incorrectly assume that a shape or stop is unchanged when its id remains the same. These applications process new stop_ids and new shape_ids, but will often ignore existing ones between datasets, even when values such as lat/lons, stop names, or codes, are changed.

It seems common sense to us to assume that a record should be able to maintain a consistent id when a new dataset is posted but still have other changes to the data (e.g., stop_name, lat/lon) incorporated. Consumers should be processing such changes regardless of whether a record has a fresh id.

We are wondering if there is either a gap in the Best Practices (http://gtfs.org/schedule/best-practices/#dataset-publishing-general-practices) or if this is an existing norm that is not being enforced/followed?