Yes bead is more traditional. Am finding that bead on "shaker" is a soft contemporary or transitional look these days in painted cabs. I'm seeing it frequently in GW white kitchens. Inset cabs are more old fashioned in look and function.

I'm not getting inset, but I believe I heard that the bead will help disguise the gap that occurs as the cabs expand/contract with the seasons. And I think that is if the bead is on the frame, as opposed to on the door face, FWIW.

Beading can be lovely. The bead, in most cases, does make the cabinet look more traditional. Not that non-beaded cabinets can't also look "traditional". After looking at a lot of displays with bead and without, we decided not to have a bead for our inset cabinets. Ideally, try to find a photo of a whole room of your cabinet style with bead and without to help with your decision.

I have a Napoleonic-era mahogany dresser as well as a repro cabinet, both with beading--I adore them. Wish I could have put some bead into my kitchen too.

I echo what Francoise says--bead or non-bead can both be traditional--and caution you to price things before getting too far into the planning, esp for a big kitchen. You will "marry" this look for a very long time. I love the bead but then, I'm the Am. history fiend. Bead, however, adds cost. The inset adds more cost. Many of us are working to keep cost down and this drives many other aesthetic issues.

If you're going to use a glaze effect on crevices in your cabs, the bead adds to the effect and again makes the kitchen seem more old fashioned (or at least introduces the idea of longstanding permanence).

Bead adds to the crevices for dusting, but I doubt that is news to you.

Traditional is one of those words (like "quality") which demands a qualifying term to have meaning; traditional to whom? Traditional at what time period? Otherwise you sound like Tevye.
Beaded IMO is more appropriate for Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, whereas beadless is more in keeping with later Victorian, craftsman and early 20th century styles. Beading was an outrage to the hygiene movement. The realization after the discovery of the "germ theory" that fancy moldings being harder to clean fostered germ growth and were undesirable in kitchens and bathrooms where cleanliness was the cardinal value.
I like both types, but I chose bead-free inset for my cabinets because I wanted to peg them at a certain time frame where beads had fallen from favor.

We have beaded detail (our kitchen is now three years-old) -- love it, gorgeous, just what I was after.

HOWEVER: it is a crap-catcher. My partner = slob. We also have two young sons (6 & 4) and believe it or not, their daddy is the biggest culprit. He also "refuses" to clean the cabs (he claims he can't "see" that they're dirty -- they're painted white -- our dog can tell they're dirty). So I do it because it bothers me (and he pays in other ways). The only way to clean the bead is with a q-tip or a toothpick, both of which I use.

It's a pain, sure, but even still I LOVE our beaded detail.

Thirteen year-old spec house in a planned community -- all the "traditional" details have been added by us (crown, skirting, etc.).

Thanks for all the input, you've helped me make up my mind. I'm going to forego the bead. As much as I love it, I don't want to do anything else to drive up the costs.

Also, the cleaning issue...the q-tips pushed me over the top. My current kitchen is only 7 years old and the white cabinets have some sort of molding on them (not sure what style they are)- I curse everytime I clean those babies.

Thanks so much - now on to the next decision.