"In the Gospel of John, where the Apostles, possibly with a few other disciples present, were the only recipients of it as Christ breathed it"
Let's see now, Thomas wasn't there, Matthias wasn't there and Paul wasn't there and they were all Apostles. Paul could lay hands on believers and they received the Holy Spirit just like Peter did. Perhaps the breathing on them had something to do with their being able to patiently wait in the upper room, all 120 of them, until the fulfillment of a portion of Joel's prophecy and the promise of Jesus to send another advocate (that's lawyer for all my despised professional buddies out there)come to fruition at Pentecost. It made tigers out of a bunch of cowering kitties.
Again, -- we've covered this, -- Christ did not have to consecrate His apostles all at the same time or in any particular manner, as He owns His own sacraments. The New Testament does not give the precise account of every apostle's consecration. Both the promise of the Paraclete and the commission to evengelize the world, however, were recorded in the scripture and were given the apostles, with a more specific commission given to St. Peter alone. By the time of the first Jerusalem Council the college of apostles was defined well enough to admit St. Mathias and St. Paul, and they consecrated others. There is no scripture indicating the Holy Ghost's propagation directly from Christ to anyone but a very select, albeit not explicitly listed, group of people.
The distinction between the first disciples and the rest of the world, between pastors and sheep is very clearly drawn in the scripture, unsettling at is may be to the modern subversives.