This could easily move into one of my other pet peeves: lack of differentiation within gifted programs for HG-PG kids. However, to avoid going off on that rant, I'll try to rein myself back to Renzulli.
I do see the benefit of casting a broader net and I really do think that the ability measures used by schools are poor measures for some gifted kids (and can overestimate the ability of some more average kids as well) which makes that even more important since they may be missing some who are more able than they appear on those measures.
On the hand, if the kids we are talking about are truly right around top 15-20% of intelligence (say 80th percentile kids), I don't actually think that they are gifted no matter how motivated and creative they may be. They are possibly talented, but not gifted in the way I define gifted, which as usual may be a poor definition depending on who you are asking
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