Well, as far as Paine goes, without his pamplets, public opinion could have gone against the Revolution -- and that includes the young (and old) men who were fighting it. So no Paine, no ... (nah, won't say it). No Paine, no America, no most influential Americans list (or most of the Americans on the list, either.)
Paine was English.
He was certainly a US citizen (eventually) and influenced Americans, as he did the English & the French, but he could be found just as easily on a list of Influential Englishmen as Influential Americans