Darren, don't see it as lowering your expectations, but adapting your viewing to suit conditions. Remember that even out bush our ability to see things and what magnification we can push things to is also a variable due to the prevailing atmospheric conditions of the night. Some nights you can easily pull a tiny, faint galaxy. Another night you can't even find the blasted thing. A dark site is no cure-all situation either!
Another thing about galaxies that hasn't been mentioned yet is surface brightness. This is the relationship between the intrinsic magnitude and the total area the object covers. So what reads as a magnitude 6 galaxy actually becomes a wretched thing to see as i is a very large object. Thing is that the 'magnitude 6' value is the entire illumination of the galaxy brought into a single point of light!!!!!
The beautiful galaxy M33 has been mentioned. Its 'magnitude' is listed at around 6.5. But it is a massive object. It can actually be a very difficult to see in a scope, totally dependant on good conditions. Its low elevation for us in Oz makes it even trickier
Be patient...