Rick,
As you know, Americans often have difficulty in identifying who the immigrant to America, from whom they are descended, was in England or Europe before he or she emigrated. As such, many family trees become brick walls when it is time to jump the pond. Hence the strategic importance of these colonial immigrants in our overall tree.
Regarding your quesiton on direct vs cousin, with colonial immigrants, cousins (even 14th 4x removed) means a common ancestor of theirs. In other words, you can't have a colonial immigrant who is cousins with Bigod, Quincy, Edward I, etc., who also doesn't have direct royal lines. Find a cousin and you're about to find royal lines.
We've been making great progress, so I'm not too worried whether or not this is a "realistic goal." So far we have removed the connection for over 70 Questionable Gateways royal lines/trees and have found a couple that we're excited about that may actually become Gateways. Clearly, the vast majority (something like 97% right now) have been dubious.
You mention you manage a profile in this category. How about a challenge? I'll start looking in your tree - among your direct ancestors only - if I find less than 10 (that are either in the category, belong in the category, or have been in the category and we've already removed them), we'll add them to the category and our project will take care of digging through them. If I find more than 10, you get invovled in helping out with them going forward and acknowledge these are a problem.
Deal?