My first thought is "What else would you use?"!

But I agree with you--it's classic, done all the time and has been done for decades. A stainless faucet is certainly modernish. I could see going with a nickel or bronzey faucet in a traditional kitchen (both with the SS sink, of course), but can't beat chrome for classic.

I think you are right and the salesperson has a different opinion. Don't worry.

Faucet finishes really depend on your taste. You are the one going to be looking and using it. So if you like Chrome; who is to tell you it not right? You could be the trend setter for the next style trend! After all; that how designers try to set the trend by saying that they like this and you should too!

Is it an undermount sink? With undermount, the faucet is not right up against the sink anyway - it's surrounded by counter material.

Allow me to third the motion - get what you like!

Definitely get what you like. I also think it depends on the faucet style as to whether it reads modern or not. My mother-in-law and I both ended up with the Kohler Vinatta faucet and had nearly the same granite...long story on how that transpired. Anyway, I got my Vinatta before I knew she was considering the same faucet and chose stainless. It looked anything but modern because the style of the faucet was very traditional. And Kohler's stainless is very warm. Plus, we had an undermount sink. It looked great. She chose chrome. It looked very stark with the sink in comparison. I always thought hers looked more modern than mine because the finish was colder and shinier looking.

I think it's extremely important to see the manufacturer's stainless before deciding. They're all a bit different in tone. For this build, I'd originally chosen chrome for our faucet (even though our sink is cast iron). But once I figured out that my other finishes for cabinet hardware and lighting were warm in tone (polished nickel and bronze), I changed my faucet choice to Moen's stainless since its warm in tone and would blend with the other warm metal tones in the kitchen. I think the blue undertones of the chrome would have looked strange. But had my other choices have been chrome and bronze, I would have gone with chrome.

That was a lot of info but I hope it gives you some food for thought.