I know there are cases where certain attacks ARE bugged and inconsistent, and they should be hitting/not hitting at certain ranges. But I really don't think that this is one of those cases.
The second hit whiffed because it should have. If you could get guaranteed follow-ups off of your advancing mid at that range (where it SHOULD whiff), then that would be some major BS. At least with short range follow-ups. If you do a long range poke then follow-up with a close range attack, then it SHOULD whiff.
It looks like you can use F2 as a long-range poke and maybe cancel into some specials. But the F2,1,3 string looks like it was meant to be done at closer ranges. There's nothing wrong with that.