"What I'm seeing is the face side bevel has the black removed at the heel and toe.
The back side bevel has the black removed in the middle, with the toe and heel untouched."

That sounds to me like the blade is warped. Or as you said the edge isn't straight.
So if you look at the blade edge with the face toward the ceiling, do you have a smiling blade?

A seasoned honer can still bevel and sharpen it, but it's not the type of blade you want to try to hone for your first time out.

Maybe it got damaged during shipping. Do the scales look like they have been bent in the middle? Any creases in the middle of the box it came in?