This seems to have intermittently been a problem since right around Christmas. As best I can tell, it's not the blockchain itself, but the Steemit condenser that has the issue.

I have done the same as you with SteemWorld.org, and whatever actions we do get logged immediately. You can also use the upvu.org front end to double check... it's built on the ecency codebase and seems more stable when Steemit is "behaving badly."

But it's annoying, all the same!