I thought about putting this thread in the "new products not appearing" thread, but that's not quite the problem/question:

Stores are taking weeks to update/refresh products that have been deleted or hidden (as well as recently published). I first noticed this in a post by another store designer when I noticed she said she had deleted it and the post was dated 2 weeks prior. According to her it had no views, so (to me) shouldn't be "reserved".

This got me looking at my store. While I also have items made well over a week ago not appearing in my store view or the MP, my issue is with backend. Usually our backends update immediately. Sometimes there's an issue and it takes a while to update...like yo to an hour...no big deal. But I've got placeholders for items I deleted 3 days ago in backend. These usually "clear up" within an hour or so at most.

Is this a known issue? And/Or is this related to the soon-to-occur re-indexing? Should I start documenting or wait it out?

The delay in things updating/appearing to the public and now in the backend as well is discouraging. When you are all gung-ho to work on your store and then have to sit and twiddle your thumbs for hours or days to see the fruits of your labor it's maddening.
I have yet to "unveil" my store to even just family & friends nevermind on FB or elsewhere because every time I add a new product or category or add something to a category or collection etc. I have to wait and wait and wait to see that it actually "took". I don't want to roll-out my store until I know others can see what I see (and sometimes even I can't see it).

AMEN to that! I work at Shutterstock and we are having the same problem, major backend problems... why can't these companies hire talent that can handle the large database? I just don't understand that.

I call them as I see them. I am autistic so I have trouble understanding sugar-coating and PC-ness. I never said I don't appreciate the hard work, I most certainly do, however I see a major issue industry-wide with these image databases not working at all, and it stumps me because the whole point of this exercise is to have our commerce conduits WORK CORRECTLY. If "major reconstruction" is required, it should be finished, done, bugs worked out, before introduction into the public arena. I apologize to anyone who misunderstands my point due to my lack of communication skills, but I meant what I said.