Per the summary, hg ci -S -A performs a subrepo commit only when a subrepo contains a modified file (hg st -S sees the subrepo changes just fine, so this is an unexpected discrepancy).
I assume you mean the subrepo contains files in state "?" (unknown) or "!" (deleted), not "A" (added) or "R" (removed). I don't think -A is propagated to subrepos.
(In reply to comment #1) Yes. Summary touched up accordingly. I think the -A should propagate to subrepos.
Fixed by http://selenic.com/repo/hg/rev/f1b06a8aad42 Matt Harbison <matt_harbison@yahoo.com> commit: propagate --addremove to subrepos if -S is specified (issue3759) The recursive addremove operation occurs completely before the first subrepo is committed. Only hg subrepos support the addremove operation at the moment- svn and git subrepos will warn and abort the commit. (please test the fix)
Bulk testing -> fixed