I have not heard all that stuff, although you may well be right. I think the definitive work on the Pilgrims was George F. Willason's "Saints and Strangers" published in 1945.

I would hope that your source is as heavily footnoted as Willason, because I have a natural aversion to what smacks of historical deconstructionism, whatever the topic and whoever the target.

Again, you may be right. Will have to check it out.