It's important to note that a mixture of lighting options allows us to select which ones we're going to use at any time, which in turn helps cut the BTUs and the bill. It's a mistake to wire a room to be very bright in all corners at all times when all that's necessary sometimes is one or two bulbs for reading the paper at the island. One of DH and my goals was to make selectable lighting. Our house tends to be quite dark in the interior even when the exterior walls are lighted by windows, so we tried to work this out. A couple new or improved doorway openings will help. We have planned a lot of new lighting--perhaps too much. But we will be able to leave much of the room dark-ish if we want it so. We like the term "task lighting" and have employed it. We spent a lot of time asking ourselves "what lighting will we want when we ____" and we tried out a lot of scenarios: walking through the space and returning again quickly; working for hours at the peninsula; eating at peninsula; eating at table; washing dishes; etc. We tried to avoid overkill by choosing a range of lighting types and sites. Example: a single 2-bulb ceiling light over the main corridor section alongside the kitchen, the "walk through and leave" light, which will also serve for "go get the salt in the kitchen" trips. But our decisions also required a lot of wall switches, esp. because we can enter the space through 5 different doorways. My wallet is glad DH was the electrician.

When we remodeled our kitchen we put in recessed 50W halogens. We were advised at the time to keep them lined up to the edge of the counter and not to far into the kitchen. The reason being that if they were too far out from the cabinets then the person working/cooking at a counter would cast a shadow over the counter. Also there is about 2.5ft distance between them. We are very happy with the placement of our recessed lights. 5years later I am now swapping them out for LEDs. I think I am going to settle for 2700k lights rather than 3000k lights only because the LED equivalents seemed to be brighter and not quite as incandescent looking (orangey). I hope this helps.

If you're talking about a deck with open joists where rain and snow melt will run down between the planks, you'll want sealed fixtures, something like THIS.

In my AHJ the permit cost is based on the type of permit and the estimated cost of the work. They do require an electrical drawing for an electrical permit, but the receptacle or light fixture count is not related to the permit cost. FYI - I have never seen the inspector compare the submitted electrical diagram to the actual installation. They are inspecting for quality work that meets code, not simply counting boxes. Bruce