I would go with the lino. The stone curb under the W/D is good if the leak happens close to the machine, but I worried about a leak/flood where the hose hook ups are or even out the door of the Washer. We put a drain directly under the Washer. The floor gradually slopes (you can notice it) towards the drain. Then it's sealed around the baseboards. With the vinyl flooring it will help (hopefully) in case of a leak.

I have a 2nd floor laundry "closet" -- just the washer & dryer, both full size, in a closet with folding doors. When I remodeled, I had a floor drain installed in the floor, and had ceramic tile laid onto the floor, along with tile wainscoting. I wanted to ensure there would be no leaks from this closet. Everything works well, no rattling/shaking going on, and it's been in place for nearly 5 years. I'm delighted with the results. The tile closet opens onto hardwood floors. Both the hardwood floors and the tiled floors are laid on top of sub-flooring that's made of particle board, if I remember correctly.

When I was doing my main floor laundry I paid special attention to the requirements of my W/D set. My instructions stated to place the set next to a load bearing wall. I have joist 16" on center and they are relatively short at 8 or 9' long. So there is no spring to the floor system. I have a 1..5" subfloor. Then a 3/8" underlayment, followed by an uncoupling membrane by Latacrit, then finished with my tile. The membrane and tile I don't consider adding strength. The strength comes from the joist and subfloor setup. This is how I understand it but I am not a professional builder or tiler, just a DIY'er. There have been post where individuals report a lot of bounce to their floors with a W/D in use. I believe these floors are the ones that have long joist and the W/D set is set nearer the center of the floor system where there is no support. It becomes a trampoline. This is especially important with a front loader. I don't know about top loaders. If you use tile, you will want a very stiff floor system anyway, so that flexion of the joist don't crack the tile, with or without the W/D setup. There is a formula to use to calculate joist length, thickness, and spacing, to determine appropriateness for installation of tile. Natural stone takes an even stiffer floor.

36+18+42= 96 inches. That is at 8 feet. What crown are you putting that closes the gap on a 9 foot ceiling? Or just "helps" to close the gap. The standards regarding crown vary quite a bit regionally and at different price points. It was not even a discussion on my last 2 builds - it was assumed to be in every room. But budget matters and region and style. Unfortunately, we don't know any of yours. Ok, you mention "modern" but I can tell you that what that word means to you isn't the same that it means to me. Nothing personal - it just may not be as descriptive as we hope. To me, a modern does not have crown or baseboard for that matter. But - easy to add later. In my market, you would pay a trim guy and then a painter behind him whereas during a build, the painter is there already (not extra trips). Your trim guy will charge about twice as much as the builder pays and the painter about 5 times as much. Your builder charges 150% markup perhaps. So it is basically a wash. You get to spend the money and make the decision later. But then there is the mess and noise in your house. Are your ceilings 8 feet upstairs? That would make a difference.