If you launch gedit with a non-existing file as a parameter (for example "gedit /tmp/test" when /tmp/test doesn't exist), gedit starts with an empty file and only creates it when you save the file. This is logical.

But what is wrong is that gedit also adds the not-yet-created file to the recently used items. For example, after launching "gedit /tmp/test", I can see that /tmp/test has been added to ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel, while /tmp/test still doesn't exist (and might never exist if I don't save it).

So, to fix this, gedit should simply add a file to the recent items only when successfully opening an existing file or successfully saving a file.