Yes, I think that it's probably just personal preference but I think the varied heights is much more special and interesting looking. (then I guess you get to agonize about the heights lol)

You have enough pendants in your “small kitchen.” Put a recessed light above the sink. It will give you plenty of light. Edited to add: We have two recessed lights with lenses wall wash trims, above our sink. Click to enlarge.

5k will not look good. I have 3500 and it’s perfect. For lights, place them right over the end of the counter so you don’t get shadow on the counter while cutting. Alternatively some just place them in the middle of the walkways with under count lights. Recessed lights will be best 5-6” will provide the best spread of light. Recessed light above sink can be smaller 4”

Thank you, Sabrina, for taking a look. That's a great idea to convert the 6" lights to 4". Of the 6 yellow (4") lights around the perimeter, only the Dry Bar (bottom of page) has upper cabinets, so I could switch those lights to strip lights. Of the 4 remaining, 2 are above the sink and 1 is on either side of the range and hood. I have no upper cabinets on either side of the range/hood, so there's no way to have strip lighting there. Perhaps pendants on either side of the range/hood instead of recessed? I toyed with the idea of putting pendants over the island, but decided against them for two reasons: 1) when looking from the Great Room into the kitchen, the chandelier above the dining table may line up and conflict with pendants above the island, making it look a bit chaotic. And 2) because the island is a perfect square, a row of pendants didn't seem to make sense to me. I could be convinced otherwise, especially if I could find the right combo of chandelier and pendants, I suppose. Are you thinking the pendants would go top to bottom in the drawing? Hmm. Maybe that would work.... All along I've been thinking left to right. Thanks for shaking up my thinking on this :-). I'll give it a try in my 3D drawing. What do you think of a single ceiling fixture over the island? Something simple.