  Classically, percolation critical exponents are linked to the power laws that
characterize percolation cluster fractal properties. It is found here that the
gradient percolation power laws are conserved even for extreme gradient values
for which the frontier of the infinite cluster is no more fractal. In
particular the exponent 7/4 which was recently demonstrated to be the exact
value for the dimension of the so-called "hull" or external perimeter of the
incipient percolation cluster keeps its value in describing the width and
length of gradient percolation frontiers whatever the gradient value. Its
origin is then not to be found in the thermodynamic limit. The comparison
between numerical results and the exact results that can be obtained
analytically for extreme values of the gradient suggests that there exist a
unique power law from size 1 to infinity which describes the gradient
percolation frontier, this law becoming a scaling law in the large system
limit.
