I have ran into a similar problem with new Dovo razors on many occasions. Most old razors I've hone reach a nice consistent keen edge from heel to toe that easily pass HHT. New Dovos on the other hand pass the HHT only in spots. After running into this problem on several new Dovos, I noticed the sides of the blade's back were not completely touching the hone ~ regardless of which type of honing technique I used, the hone wear pattern would skip spots on the sides of the spine. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the symmetrical features on 'most' of the blades were not consistent ~ the bevel's width would go from wide to very thin in various places along the blade's edge, sometimes fading to virtually no bevel at all. I also noticed that every new Dovo I had this problem with was purchased on ebay.
I really don't think the steel's quality was poor on the new Dovos I had problems with. I think the real problem was a poor grind on each blade.