The problem with ultra low gate counts is always memory. No matter how simple your CPU is, you still need at least thousands of discrete components for it to do anything useful, unless you resort to something like Williams tubes or delay lines. (Torsion wire delay line is probably the most practical form of memory for a computer like this)
You can build an interesting CPU core out of whatever, and then connect it to a silicon SRAM chip, and still say you built an interesting CPU core out of whatever.
