MinnMan you are making great progress, keep it up. Six inches behind the wheel in front of you is pretty close. I'm more comfortable about a 1/2 wheel back, then, if I drift up I have a cushion. I usually try to look ahead if possible or at least at the hips of the rider in front, never the wheel. The beauty of the pace line is in part as you state "the effect of the ensemble that is really thrilling". It's a group of riders who are working together to attain a faster pace, hide from the wind, share a group experience and other good things. It only takes one bad rider to mess it all up. I occasionally ride with a local club that has one or two "bad riders". Both are very fit and can outride most everyone in the group but some of their habits makes riding near them uncomfortable if not aggravating . They will "up" the pace once they are on the front, because they can, which blows up some of the riders. One will get out of the saddle in a way that his bike is "thrown back" into the rider behind him. Worst of all is after a stop or pause at an intersection, they will accelerate away from the group forcing the riders in the rear to have to sprint to get back into the group. Don't do any of those things and you'll be fine. It would also be important to access the skills and traits of the riders around you.
I have found the easiest way to work in a pace line group is to use cadence and HR as my indicator of how long I should pull. As I near the front I look at my cadence. Once I'm at the front I keep the cadence the same as when I was riding within the line then begin to watch my HR. As soon as the HR begins to go up, I'm out and rolling back. As I roll back the HR will still climb as it lags the effort. The goal is to get back in the fold and recover before the next pull.