Yes, dust is definitely one of the downfalls with open shelving. I have heard many people complain about having to wash dishes more often. It also doesn't allow you to hide any unattractive dishes.

We have open shelving in our summer cottage. The dishes are left there all winter and there is no dust on them when we reopen in the spring. I haven't noticed any dust during the summer. Don't know why but it's great.

I have open shelves which are awful. I'm sick of having to regularly wash all of my clean dishes because of the dust. Also, my stove vent is inadequate so if I fry anything, grease particles only make the problem worse. I'm in the planning process of remodeling the kitchen and will NOT have any open shelves.

I would assume open shelving works great if you regularly wash all your dishes. Could be because you don't own a lot of them, or because you have friends over every week for dinner.
As sbsantare has experienced, it might not be as pronounced in a summer cottage, as there isn't much dust buildup if the place is closed up. The little dust creation there is, probably lands on the floor and isn't "ruffled" up into the air.
This is just assumptions, I havn't had open shelving myself. However, I'd imagine they would contribute to making a compact kitchen feeling larger compared to installing cabinets.

I asked a friend who owns a major and very well respected restaurant here in the SF Bay area about her own home kitchen and brought this topic up. She said she keeps the stuff she uses all the time on open shelves and everything else in cupboards. The stuff she is using frequently, she says, is always getting washed anyway so that takes care of that. She also said that this is why she has on hand one of those traditional long feather duster things.