As I mentioned in the REMI/REMA/REMS thread, there seems to be a bug in the 1.22 mac patch. Without revealing spoilers of my upcoming mod...
I have an item I need to remove from a ship. If it's in the cargo bay, either REMV or REMA gets rid of it. If it's been installed though, only REMI gets rid of it, REMA does not. REMA is supposed to look everywhere. So, I'm pretty sure this is a previously unidentified bug, not something weird I've caused in my mod only.
The short-term modding solution, of course, is to just use REMI and REMV in tandem. Downside is that doing so could potentially remove two copies of the item, but for unique items (at least) that's not an issue.
I'm sorry to always be the bearer of bad news, Fingers and Ed.
I love the game. If I didn't spend so much damn time playing and modding, I wouldn't be noticing these things.