I have had LONG discussions with Autodesk about this, as far as they were concerned it is working as designed. I can understand PART of their logic, just like with a surface or any other type of reference, you can chose to display the structure differently in one file type vs another by using a different style. SO when you attach the data reference and assign a style that is a unique attachment for the reference. The model information is correct (so if you had a profile and changed a structure from say a catch basin to a headwall the change would display assuming you are showing the "from model" display in your profile).
This has led to us being VERY careful with where we use data references for pipe networks in particular. We ONLY data reference when cutting a profile and displaying structures in that profile or when doing conflict detection. All the other work we typically do with structures (labelling in a variety of plans for example) is done thru xrefs. Then your plan display updates.
In your case if you havent added any labels thru the data reference I would just delete the reference and recreate it. If you have labelled everything, the best suggestion I have is think of the time it will take you to relabel vs hunting down the structures you changed the type of and do whichever is less painful.
The first time we ran into this I was irritated, once they explained their reasoning to me, I still wasn't happy but I could see the logic in their approach even if I think it is the wrong approach.
