Kitchen Layout: My Favorite Kitchen in the World

In Pennsylvania, there stands a house whose kitchen was built in 1979 after a garage tear-down.  This is my Aunt Jane and Uncle Tom's kitchen, and to this day it remains My Favorite Kitchen In the World.  To say that my house built itself around this particular kitchen is an understatement - my #1 instruction to our architect was to place my Uncle Tom's kitchen in the best view spot of the house, then integrate everything around it.  And oh-by-the-way I also want a couch in it.  And that's exactly how the house process started, which was actually a good thing because it gave us a very specific starting point.

I then discovered that kitchen designers do NOT like this kitchen for various reasons: 

1.  they criticize it for it's lack of island (agreed somewhat:  I'm doing one now due to some venting/spacing reasons anyway)
2.  they criticize it for the "too level and wide" countertop where the barstools go.   But this is its genius.  The general consensus seems to be that raised countertops are loved by designers and architects when it comes to the barstool area.  This is one of the only areas where I absolutely disagree with my favorite architect author, Sarah Susanka, who also recommends a raised countertop in order to "hide" the mess more.    Anytime I've been at a house where I'm sitting at a raised countertop, I feel like my plate and drink are in close quarters, and if you want to grab more to eat you are usually getting up and down for refills. People like to graze in a kitchen.  They like to pick.  They like to linger and talk while drinking and eating.  This is why I love my Uncle Tom's kitchen.  You can spread out, pick all you want to, lean into the counter, etc.  You can also plop the kids up to make a huge spread of Christmas cookies or work on a huge project. 
3.  they criticize it for it's one entry in and out.

I get it, but I've lived this kitchen.  I've cooked in it, I've socialized in it, and I love it.  Everyone does.  It's the only kitchen I've seen that gravitates so many to sit, literally hours upon hours on end,  eating, playing games, talking, etc.  It's practically perfection.

Mine will be an updated, more modern take,.  It certainly will not look much like theirs from a style standpoint and will have more streamlined and modern amenities now, except I will also repeat the interior stone wall, because I love it as well.

The Original Uncle Tom's Kitchen:

 

and the original dimensions (Uncle Tom also recommended adding a foot on either side of the sink, if he had to do it all over again ): 

and mine as it stands now, below.  I had to edit on the above quite a bit because of some space and venting allocation issues.  I'm okay with it, because it still keeps that beloved barstool countertop intact and has a very nice work triangle that should function just as well, if not better?  We will see, but the fact that the kitchen designers are thrilled with these changes make me feel fairly confident about the change.

 

when I convert it into www.floorplanner.com to scale, it ends up looking like like this: 

 and in 3d, like this:

 

The "perfect" kitchen layout is one that could be debated endlessly.  My guess is we will not use the kitchen table area very much, but I wanted one there for when we entertain.  I also plan to shape the island so that it has no strong corner edges (this was floorplanner.com's only option as shown) and I envision a table-style island so that it's open underneath. 

What's your opinion?