Here's another couple of connections that I plan to reject, if nobody will oppose with strong arguments!

LAKES: Kizhi and Lavaux >> these sites are located at the shores of a lake, but the lake itself isn't part of the WHS. I feel if we would allow these, we draw many more border cases in at other connections.

SHOPPING ARCADES: Paris - Rue de Rivoli, Vienna - Freyungspassage, St Petersburg - The Passage >> every city has a shopping arcade in some form, difficult to draw any borders here as what is 'notable'

HISTORICAL CAFES: Vienna (Central, Demel, Sacher, Landtmann, Hawelka), Prag (Kafka), Budapest (Gerbeaud, Ruszwurm) Rome (Greco), Salzburg (Tomaselli), Paris (de la Paix) >> same story as with the shopping arcades

COLOURS: White City, White Monuments, Red Square, Greater Blue Mountains >> a bit too obvious to my taste

Re the Lakes.

"Rules" for other geographic connections do not require this specific degree of "connection"
a. "The Pacific" allows even 10kms away - presumably on the basis of "cultural impact"? Lima?? (The Historic centre may even be further away)
b. "General proximity" is allowed without the site actually extending INTO the water eg Baku and numerous others.

Can we imagine the Lavaux Cultural Landscape without Lac Leman or Kizhi without Lake Onega? Are the Lakes an essential attribute or just an accidental neighbour? Both Evaluations mention the lakes.

I agree with Solivagant on the lakes.
As to cafes and shopping arcades we may just turn the connection into historic cafes and arcades.
The mentioned shopping arcades are all historical and were among the first ones of their sort. Freyungspassage:
Freyungpassage 1860
The Passage 1848
Passage at Rue de Rivoli 1907
The same is true for most of the aforementioned cafes - all apart Kafka are old and are considered historical too. Demel was even the official cafe of the Austrian monarchs already in the 18th Century. Here are the opening years for these cafes:
De la Paix - 1862
Tomaselli - 1705
Landtmann - 1873
Demel - 1786
Sacher (at the hotel) - 1876 (inventors of the Sacher Torte)
Hawelka - 1936 (under another name till 1938)
Central - 1860
Greco - 1760
Ruszwurm - 1824
Gerbeaud - 1858 (changed names several times - the current one originates from the end of the 19th Century)

I agree with Els about the coulors.