Hi Daniel, Unfortunately the "New Map" tab in my ribbons pane is greyed out. 
I am however, able to create a new project by selecting "New" and then "Map".

There really seems to be no rhyme or reason to explain the "blackout" I'm seeing here. While I do have some projects saved into my OneDrive, a majority of the projects I currently access are saved into my C drive.
Since posting my initial question, I have found a workaround to opening my older projects not located in the "Recent Projects" drop down selection. I simply go to "Open" and then "Open another project" and this directs me to my file explorer.
I've explained all this to an ESRI analyst I'm working with. I've just sent her a diagnostic log so hopefully we'll be able to locate the source of this issue.
Additionally, I ran the compatibility test and my device does meet all the requirements.