Thank you the layout helps. If I were to be greedy I would say put switches in all 3 spots! If I could only pick two, I would pick the spot where you enter the room (upper right) and somewhere on the table side of the kitchen, like the spot where your pantry switch is. And just so I understand correctly -- is the upper right where you would enter if coming from outside, and the door near the pantry where you would enter if coming from inside the house? (e.g., in the morning when it's dark and you haven't had your coffee yet... which way do you come in? You'll want a switch near there I think.) If your main access all the time is through the upper right, I still think it would be nice to have a control near the table since the island lighting is close to the table area. I don't know if it's possible or practical to have a switch in the island itself, like in the space near where your MW is, on the table side. If it is possible I think that would be handy.

An air switch is much safer than a "regular" switch. With a "regular" switch, the electrical current is directly connected to the switch so you have to be careful of wet hands when using it. Let's face it, while working at the sink and using the disposal, your hands will often be wet and while usually nothing happens, that's no guarantee. OTOH, an air switch has no direct connection to the electrical current. Rather, the disposal is plugged into the air switch "box" under the sink and a plastic tube (not a conductor) is attached to the box and then attached to the switch itself on the counter. To turn the disposal on/off (or anything else plugged into the air switch), you press the switch and a puff of air is sent down the tube to complete or open the connection (i.e., turn the current on or off at the box.) It doesn't matter how much water you have on your hands or around the switch...there will be no shocks or even shorts. The hole in the granite and switch are very unobtrusive and puts the switch right where it's used. With a switch behind a tilt-out in front of your sink... (1) It will force your sink back even further to accommodate the electrical box (even a slim one) and that will then cause you to have to lean further in to reach the sink & faucet...which is not good for anyone's back, regardless of "condition" (2) Because the sink is forced further back, you may have an issue fitting your faucet + handle b/w the sink & back wall if there's a window sill and/or backsplash other than paint behind the sink (3) You will usually have wet hands opening/closing the tilt-out and that might have an impact on the finish of the tilt-out front panel. (4) If you have children or grandchildren (or any children visiting), it will be very easy for them to get to the switch to play around with the disposal...and trust me, it will only take one time for them to see you use it for them to know it's there and know how to get to it. BTW...you can get air switches in almost any finish to match your faucet...I did. Both my faucet & air switch are brushed nickel. Or, you can sometimes match your counter color (e.g., if you have a black counter, you can get a black air switch.) HTH!

For the uplight, you could go a few routes, especially with respect to dimming functionality. And some fixtures don't support dimming, so you need to figure that out. To that end, I suggest you think through the use cases. For example, the use case that I think I'd appreciate most is late evening, after you've retired to another room of the house, at which time a mellow indirect glow from the skylight cutout would be particularly pleasant. You might also want the more light from this source on occasion, in which case you'd want brighter lights on a dimmer. That being said, here's some options. I'm thinking two, centered on the skylights, mounted near the bottom rim of the cutout (just above the beam probably). Regarding the pendant, I know that selecting pendants is hard enough without more to think about, but one downside of a single pendant vs multiple pendants is thhat single sources create worse shadows. And the clear glass pendants above exacerbate this harsh shadow problem by being point sources, whereas the Fillsta, for example, mitigates this problem because it's effectively a uniform 31" sphere of light. This large diffuser also makes it possible to use a brighter source. For example, you could put a 300W equivalent CFL in the Fillsta, but such a bright light would be unacceptably harsh in a point source like the clear glass pendants above.

You probably have a switch loop where the white is actually used to carry power to the switch so it isn't a neutral even though it's white. Most diagrams you google will show a light instead of a receptacle, but the concept is the same. The back stab connections are notorious for failing, so while you could just hook up the new outlet the same as the old one, I would suggest connecting the black (that was on the screw) and the white (that was backstabbed) with a wirenut and add a pigtail from the wirenut to the receptacle.