Photoshop :: How To Update Smart Image From External TIFF

I originally want to create some text and add effects to it.  But as I add effects or, especially, scale, it, I find I need to go back and change the text image (make lines of the characters wider, change proportions...etc.
 
So I imported my text as a smart image and began work on it -- but when I went and change the original, the changes were not reflected -- I closed the document I was working on and re-opened it, just to be sure -- maybe it didn't detect the file had been changed.  No difference.
 
It seems it makes a separate copy from my original and uses that and the only way to update it, is to delete an old imported smart layer, and add in a new one and re-apply  all the layer effects to the new layer (or transfer them from the old later before deleting it).
 
Seems a bit awkward...Shouldn't the smart image allow me to include something externally, and as it is imported, it imports a bit map of the current content sized to the appropriate "frame" for the imported layer?
 
That's another issue -- can't just copy layer effects -- have to be sure to reapply any cropping or resizing you did to the smart image (presuming the layer can take a zoom level and a mask -- maybe it can't do that either?)...since you can distort it, I would assume so (remember reading that layer effects applied to smart objects were turned off while you distorted layers, or something like that...)...
 
How does one include dynamic content in a picture at edit time (NOT AT DISPLAY TIME -- this ain't HTML! ;