Sending a DELETE request to the endpoint of an object (e.g. a comment like /datasets/mwfeatured/places/4424/comments/4428) via the frontend editor removes the object from the database, but in some cases it won't immediately remove the object from the server's cache (at least I think that's what's happening). In these cases the object will reappear on a page reload, but attempts to send further PUT or DELETE requests to it will result in a 404 error. The object will be completely gone when the cache automatically refreshes, once an hour I think.
I don't have enough information about this to articulate a pattern, but it definitely happens to comments at least.