I believe random gate screenings should only go away when they stop finding things that the people up front missed.

There isn't any way the airplane can be safer if the people up front are the only line of defense in their current configuration. Every time that the random gate agents found something in all the highly publicized stories and all the noes we never heard about, they found something that was missed up front.

Remove them without getting better up front, and you have less security.

You also get the cattle line back to be the first to board the plane.