I can't say how ElementTree works without more checking, but this solution cannot work in general. Given a pointer to an object that's in a list, how would you get to the next item? Say the parent list-like object has a C array of pointers to the objects it contains, and removing one of the objects re-shuffles that list. How would keeping a pointer to the current object help you?

In any event, I don't think this behavior is going to change.