Question about why Mark has apostles fail to recognize Jesus properly.

Listening to some podcasts about Mark and having recently reread I had a stray thought pop up. It seems like a consistent theme in Mark is that the apostles get who Jesus is exactly wrong and when he is recognized he asks it to be kept quiet.

Could the intent in this be in part to explain a potential lack of early identification of Jesus as "son of God" or a suffering messiah in some early Christian communities? I know Mark is the earliest written gospel and my understanding is that Christology tended to see an upward development over time. Could Mark have been written with an audience in mind that may have potentially had access to a few older communities' members who would gainsay what he identifies Jesus as from a "I was there" or "I heard from someone who was there" perspective?

Noting also that the first person to openly, explicitly, acknowledge Jesus in Mark is a Roman soldier. Could this have been a dig at earlier Jewish followers not, "getting it" in the author's perspective?