Most of it is what pleases your eye and how keen you are on maximizing every tiny inch of space. Here's what I did. I have about 6" of space between my deck door and the upper cab next to it. That allows enough space for the door molding (approx 2.5") and barely enough drywall showing in the gap to look intentional on my part. If I had a few extra inches I would have put more space, but I was trying to eek out storage on the sink run.

I don't like the look of a hood sandwiched in with uppers touching it on either side unless it's a wood cabinet hood. To me, a freestanding stainless hood or the like needs some aesthetic breathing room. My hood is going between two windows. I placed the windows 6" away from the sides of my stainless hood. That gives room for the window molding and some wall space.

I did the same 6" theory with the window to cab space also.

I agree that it's a personal preference. For the space between a patio door and cabinets, I'd prefer not to see a narrow 1" strip of wall space. I'd rather have either 3-4" (more if you have the space). When we planned ours, we also took into account how big the cabinets could be when we played around with that wall space. We have about 4" between the door molding and the cabinet, which gave us a 30" upper cabinet. I didn't want the upper cabinet to be any smaller than 30" wide because I felt that was a good width for our everyday dishes.
The same goes for the wall space between the window and cabinets...I just don't like a super thin (1" or so) strip of wall. To me it almost looks like a mistake. There again we have about 4" from the window molding to upper cabinets.
Just don't forget to take into account how wide you'd like your upper cabinets to be for what you're storing there. I would work on that first, and then determine how much wall space you'll end up with. You can then adjust cabinet width by a few inches either way to end up with the best combination.
Re: hood. It's my understanding that if you have a 36" hood over a 36" range, then you should allow 3" of open space on both sides of the hood. We have a 36" range with a 42" hood. Because the hood is already wider than the range, the hood will be flush against the upper cabinets. A knowledgeable appliance salesperson will be able to explain this better than I am.

I need every bit of cab space I can get in my small kitchen. My uppers are going to butt right up against the window moldings. I think it looks nicer to have a few inches in between, but for me, function has to trump form. My window is over 43" wide, though. If the window is too narrow, having the cabs adjoin might feel too crowded.

Hazel,
What do you like?
Are you using molding? What about under cab lighting?
Do you have expansive space or do you need every nook
and cranny as Ginny20.

Do you have a mock up of what you need on the run?

I like a bit of space but not so much that it looks
unplanned.

This is pleasing to me

This feels crowded to me

Thanks again boxerpups!A pic is worth a thousand words :)

I too prefer the first one. I am wondering though, would the second one look better if it were a wider window? My window isn't too wide ... 4 feet. Also, I will have those criss cross things in the window and I now realize that they may add to the clutter...

I have a pic of the layout and will start a new thread for it.