It appears there is a small bug that may have been introduced with the theme/component split.
Normally when you change a theme setting that affects the CSS, you can immediately see the change, even without refreshing. This is still working correctly with themes.
The bug occurs when you change a theme setting that affects the CSS on a theme component that has been added to a theme. The CSS does not change, even with a refresh. The only way to trigger the change is to go into the CSS/HTML of the theme component and make a manual change.
I’ve created a small theme component that might help for testing. Theme-Creator does not allow you to add components to themes, so you will need to download it and try it out a test site in order to see the bug.
Please let me know if I need to clarify anything!