We could give lots of examples here. E.g. location is controlled by category LOC having a value like CHILD. If you rename it to CHILDREN, your items still contain the old value. This cannot be solved with a FK since an authorised value may be in use under several AV categories. Maybe there are cases where you do not want to have an AV immediately cascade the change in a linked table? Also note that we have a maintenance script looking for these inconsistencies (bug 21466), but if we could reduce the volume here, I wouldnt mind. How should we best address this need?
Feedback welcome
Well, there is the script :) An other solution could be to SELECT COUNT(*) FROM items where location = $old_value and display an alert if there are some. You could also provide a link to the batch mod item with the items to modify.
In theory I guess we could look up via the frameworks if a authorised value is used and then offer to update the items or at least display a warning. Fixing this in general for all types of AV would probably turn out a bit nightmarish.