Seems like someone may be channeling an inner Halford around here.
CA Bob, I think you just do what you find works. Fly fishing in general seems full of conflicting opinions, both of which will catch fish in different situations. Things like dead drift dry flys vs. skating or skittering.
I've bounced all around indicators or not, and have gone from one to the other and back. Where I ended up last year was with a small piece of yarn tied into the thick end of the leader near the loop connection to the leader butt extender on the end of my fly line. It seems like this is more sensitive than just watching the line tip, but keeps me from constantly messing with the depth that the indicator is set (which I find to be a pain) and seems to be pretty versatile from deep pools to riffs. When not using an indicator, my best luck has come picking little depressions in riffles - the water is moving fast enough that a pause in the line tip is pronounced enough to see well. In deeper plunge pools I've had problems with both methods since a leader long enough to get down I think gets twisted all around and can actually be going in different directions and much different speeds than the line. My favorite is several feet of tippet from a larger dry fly to a tunghead nymph on outside bends - sometimes they'll take the dry and when they take the nymph that fly goes down right now. I do agree with a rod lift at every little funny movement - often enough there's a fish there, and I think sometimes the lift may actually induce a take.
Well, there's my completely subjective $.02 worth.