End Gateway teleports me back to spawn instead or on an island in the middle of nowhere instead

I threw an ender pearl into the End Gateway and it teleported me back to the 5x5 obsidian platform the player spawns on instead. I tried multiple attempts until it teleported me to an island in the middle of nowhere between the 1000 block gap between the Central Island and the Outer Islands. Is it just me or is this a bug that Mojang needs to fix? Thanks. 🙂