Hi Glenn,
I do agree with you that system behavior seems inconsistent: from a functional point of view I can't find a valid reason to have some business partner addresses entered in sales order transactions that are correctly geocoded (because they were not changed), and others that are not (because you simply changed the house number for example, to drop the parcel at a neighbor's place). Doesn't make sense to me, especially as the address check against the regional structure is taking place in both cases.
Unfortunately, unless you work for a very big company with a premium SAP support contract, there is very little chance that you can make them change this incomprehensible behavior...
Cheers,
Nicolas.
PS: that's a good candidate for the CRM WebClient UI Wish List - CRM - SCN Wiki