Joe Watts was on the level of Chicagos Lenny Patrick or Dave Yaras or Frank the German, meaning they were "high level" associates. I dont know all of the details regarding Watts, but guys like Patrick controlled their own crews and districts for decades and in fact, even made guys and capos had to receive a permission from them to operate in their areas. These guys either answered directly to the Outfits boss or were placed under another high level associate who in turn acted as representative for all of the non-Italian crews. In fact, the non-Italian rep position had a line of succession which required voting, after some of them were imprisoned, retired or dead. Few of the Outfits most infamous non-Ital reps were Jake Guzik, Murray Humphreys and Gus Alex. This situation falls in the traditional vs modern theory, and the US mob obviously belonged to the modern type of OC groups.