JC, I do not think that anyone is disparaging the indicator as a bobber. It is a bobber The difference is (for some), and this is not my opinion, but the bobber is used for the sole purpose of keeping a lure, bait, whatever a set depth from the surface of the water. an indicator is not so closely tied to that definition so much as it is used to "indicate" a fish eating the fly, bait, etc. Personally, I say call a spade a spade, but that is one argument I have heard against my indicator is a bobber statement. If the question were to ask about bobbers I would gladly use their verbage, but since I do not know many of the posters personally, I do not want to offend them so I stick with their wording.

Secondly, I would defer to Darth here and say that a top fly is not an indicator. Here in MT many of the dries are large enough to float a nymph and still be representative of a simultaneous hatch, so in that regard, the fly (bobber, indicator) is another fly that happens to be attached to the nymph.

I may be answering a rhetorical question of yours, or a question aimed at someone else, but I remember a time I was at my favorite fly shop and the owner and I were talking about indicators, and the shop owner said that to save his clientele money he should bring in the red/white style (small). Another customer said that he would not shop in a store that carried bobbers... oh well.