As others have stated, indicators are situational. If I'm fishing flat runs in less than knee deep water, not needed most of the time, I like a short line. If fishing in variable currents or deeper, I'll use them. I've tried the OROS indicators (small and extra small) and I like them alot because they are so easy to adjust up and down and even better, they are
very easy to add/remove as I jump from spot to spot.
As Jon said, I use dry droppers quite a bit. Hang a nymph just behind your dry fly during a hatch and you can score on the nymph as well as the dry. You can also fish very shallow riffles with a dry dropper as the dry is less likely to spook a shallow fish.