Address data not saved when the default country is the only data submitted

Took me a while, but this is the issue:
When a default country A is set for contacts, any contact that is created and saved, does not show up in reports that includes a filter of that default country A.

However, if you edit an existing contact from another country B and change its address to country A, the contact does show up in reports that filter by that country A.

Apparently, saving a contact with default country does not store the country in the database record of that contact..at least the country filter does not recognize the default country.