I leave ours on the dim setting most of the time but turn them up to the brightest setting when I need more task light, such as nights when I'm reading a recipe, etc. I think it's good to be able to change the level definitely.

I would go for the extra dimmers in order to have the flexibility of lighting. Although the initial expense may not seem worth it, I believe that in the long run, you probably won't have the lights on full most of the time. Placing the lights on dimmers also conserves energy and the bulbs last much longer.

Placing the lights on dimmers also conserves energy and the bulbs last much longer.

As posted in another thread, this is a common misconception. Incandescent lights become less efficient when dimmed, thus wasting energy (in terms of the amount of light produced per Watt-hour consumed). It's wasteful to use high wattage lamps, then operate them dimmed much of the time.

In general, if you're concerned with saving energy and can't (or don't want to) use fluorescents, you should use the correct wattage of incandescent lamp for the amount of light that you need, and not dim it unless necessary.

Note that I say lamp singular. One incandescent lamp (bulb) that produces the right amount of light will consume less energy than two lower wattage lamps that produce the same amount of light. Thus you should use the minimum number of lights that provide the kind of coverage you need.

You are best served to use dimming only for effect, not to throttle back lights that are too bright for the situation.

"Note that I say lamp singular. One incandescent lamp (bulb) that produces the right amount of light will consume less energy than two lower wattage lamps that produce the same amount of light. Thus you should use the minimum number of lights that provide the kind of coverage you need."

One company puts their 5w xenon festoon bulbs at 32 lumens, and the 10-watt bulbs at 95 lumens. That means the 10w bulbs are almost 50% more efficient. You could space them further apart, pay less for electricity and still get more light.

An obstacle, I think, is that most people don't have any way to calculate the "correct" wattage to get the light levels they need. Most consumers are unfamiliar with footcandle measurements, can't quantify their own needs and don't know the reflectance figures for their counter and backsplash surfaces. Even if they learned all of that, photometric data on specific fixtures can be hard to come by. It's no wonder that even thoughtful consumers see no alternative but to hedge their bets and install too many lights and then dim them down -- however wasteful.