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So, I've been told the best way to field Dark Eldar shooting units is in Venoms or Raiders with Night Shields. That way, you can be in range of your opponent, but they can't b in range of you when they return fire. Now, my math (which is usually flawed) seems to suggest that their movement phase cancels out the night shields, since it reduces their range by 6", so even if you're at the very edge of your shooting range, they can just move in. Am I missing something, or is this strategy predicated on the use of terrain to slow the enemy?

The idea with night shields is that they allow you to maximize your ability to stay in optimal range.

A raider with a nightshield full of warriors can operate at 24" range to force units to move towards you when they have less than 24" weapons. Since you measure from a single spot on the hull and you can premeasure during movement, you can sit the raider such that only a few models in a unit are within the 24" range. Then, those units with 24" weapons have to move 6" towards you to return fire, and most will not get in range.

This is beneficial especially considering supporting units. If you are skirting the 24" range for splinter rifles, it gives you a better chance to avoid weapons with a 36" range or less, and especially heavy weapons which can only fire snap shots after moving.

Essentially nightshields give a unit increased ability to abuse its max range while trying to bait units to come at you. If you have an assault element, that is exactly what you need.

Most heavy weapons need to be stationary to fire, and there are armies that primarily have 24" range (Nids, Necrons) so you can actually stand off with the DE quite effectively. Obviously against Devastator spam it's slightly more difficult, but with 5+ jink DE vehicles are tougher than they look.

They are great for avoiding rapid fire and melta also.

It's a pretty pricey upgrade when spread across multiple vehicles, but I've almost always been glad I took them.

Nightshields are great vs. GK armies, Orks, Eldar, and armies that are packing a lot of 24" rapid fire weapons. The idea is to cut down on the number of multishot weapons that have a far greater chance to kill your vehicles en masse vs. the MLs and Autocannons. Even those can be avoided if deployment mistakes by your opponent can be exploited. Like all vehicle wargear...they are situational and aren't necessarily an auto take item.