I don't think doing a PPL would disqualify you. It at least helps to address the question of what you are doing towards your goal and has other peripheral benefits, but it is not essential.
AOB: Has anyone else noticed an increase in spam email and attempts for account sign-ups with their email since recently signing into PPrune? There's a correlation on my side, but I'm trying to gauge with more certainty where spammers or hackers have recently obtained my email address from.