After re-reading your post, I think what you are asking for is to be able to change an attribute so that the edit applies to all items with that attribute. Is that correct?

Yes, that could be done fairly easy.
Would you need the ability to update the options as well.

Edit item attribute form
[] apply edit to all items using this attribute?

Edit options form
[] apply edit to all items using these options?

Honestly I think that attributes should not be a global thing unless applied to a class. The reason for making a class is so that all the attributes/options get created when you create a new item of that class.
So updating the class options should be global. If you have one item that needs different options just put it in a different class, or just make it a product and set the attributes manually. This makes it easier to track attributes, put all items in a class on sale, etc.