As someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen, I want good, bright lighting which cans provide. In our first build in 1998, we used cans. Our last build 2 years ago also has cans--this time CREE LR6 led lights (for kitchen only--the only place we really use overhead lighting, and use it a LOT). I can't imagine other lighting scenario for the kitchen. You might have too many planned, but I can't imagine not using any. Looking up at our 10' ceiling, our cans look no closer than 40" apart.

You need to know the brand and model of your recessed housings to be able to browse a catalog and choose the trims and lamps that can improve the lamp concealment. New homes like your new one are often being built with inexpensive IC rated housings & trims. These have a stop on the socket assembly which keeps the lamp from being raised up higher in an attempt to control heat since the housings can be covered in insulation. Your 12 year old CA home probably had non IC rated housings which lacked the stop. There are more expensive housings and trims which fix this and there are some airtight trims which also can improve on this hopefully with the housings you have. If you want more detailed info then you'll need to provide more information.

We used a 'layered' approach to lighting. Surface fixtures provide general illumination into cabinets all the way to the top. This layer provides about half of the needed lighting and are intended to be left on all day long. Recessed cans were cut into the existing ceiling (lath and plaster) using a RotoZip and carbide tile bit with circle adapter. The circles for retrofit fixtures have to be as exact as possible. This layer of lighting is located to illuminate the counter and provide the majority of work light. There are mini-pendants at the peninsula on a dimmer for both supplementary work light and ambient light when desired. Additional miniature downlights on a dimmer are over the sink to play a similar role. With all of this we don't need undercabinet lights. All of this required careful planning to make an ordered layout that fit into the joist spaces. We were installing a beam so we had access to one end of the ceiling joists and used that for routing wires between the joist spaces. However, I have used fixture holes to drill through adjacent joists and wire things up that way. That will only work if you are lucky and have a relatively dense layout, however.

What about a slim integrated LED like this.? (picked randomly from google search not shown here as a brand recommendation).