Nymphing - indicator-to-nymph MAX distance

Still struggling with nymphing --

I know that you're supposed to make the distance between your indicator
and your fly about 1.5 - 3x the depth of the water, depending on water
speed, amount of weight, and who you ask. Fine, make sense.

However, I'm often nyphing in water that's at least 4-6 feet deep.
Which means a length of, oh, let's just say about 8' between the
fly+weight and the indicator. It seems to me that that is simply too
much distance - that there's guaranteed to be some slack between the
fly and indicator (what with mid-depth currents and so on, and just the
amount of time it takes the fly to get down deep) which pretty much
guarantees I'll miss any take by simply looking at my indicator.

What am I not understanding here? I feel like I'm comfortable nymphing
with a distance of about 4' between the indicator and fly, and really
no more. But of course that doesn't get me down very deep at all.

Thoughts, opinions, suggestions?

Tim