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This doesn't seem clear cut to me. Sufficient and deficient have the same stress pattern, but deficient doesn't have a double letter. Neither does proficient.

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The ff in sufficient indicates a short vowel sound for the "u". The single f in deficient indicates a long vowel sound for the "e". Hence, suff-icient and dee-ficient. At least, that's how we pronounce it where I'm from.

OED, Merriam-Webster, and Collins all show a short "e", as in "delete" or "different", i.e. /dɪ/. I've never heard it pronounced as /diː/. Do you have some kind of southern drawl where you put the stress on the first syllable, like some people do with "defense"?

In my (mostly standard I think) dialect of American English sufficient and proficient are pronounced with a schwa and rhyme, while deficient is pronounced with a "short i" sound or a schwa.

Language rules are rarely clear cut.

But consider “tiler” (someone who lays tiles on a floor) vs “tiller” (someone who tills farmland). The single or double ‘l’ results in a long or short ‘i’ in the pronunciation.

Or “hater” vs “hatter”. “Hoping” vs “hopping”. “Later” vs “latter”. Etc

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