If you don't buy the Chinese made house brand crap from either one of the big boxes, then you may be OK. You can still save some money on some national brands that are good quality. However, once you throw out the Chinese junk, the selection goes way down and you may not find the look you're going for. On something that's 12' up in a foyer that I have to wrestle to get out the scaffolding just to change a bulb on, I want the best quality possible as I don't want to have to involve myself in a difficult or expensive replacement. For a kids room whose tastes will change overnight, something of a lesser quality may be in order. But, for the ones that are going to be there for the life of the home (like recessed lighting) I don't want to have to budget twice because I cheaped out the first time.

I'd opt for shorter lights that wouldn't require a truck mounted boom lift to service.

I recommend LED wall packs and LED flood lights, which are very energy efficient and make the outdoors very bright and full of fun. I used it two years ago. These two types of lighting effects are good for outdoor lighting.

Do your cabinets have molding (example) that is attached to the bottom of the cabinet box to hide any lights and wires you might attach there? If not, I'd use tape lights in a channel as that will be the shallowest solution (hide the required driver inside a cabinet). Otherwise, linkable light bars shallower than the molding would be a good solution. Be sure that whatever solution you choose is dimmable from a wall dimmer. I'd skip the lights under the cabinets. They'll just highlight the dirt on the kitchen floor.