Well, I'd encourage you to keep an eye out; I think you'll find that the majority of controls on the web behave as I described. And I think that's a good thing, too: it's far quicker and easier to be able to deduce behaviour from the control you're handling at the moment, than having to scan the complete context. And especially if e.g. you're visually impaired, the latter can be a major hassle.

(And indeed, the other controls you mention almost never apply instantly, so their behaviour is still predictable. When they do, they'll often still have some other affordances to indicate that they do apply instantly.)