You might want to check out the lighting forum also. When I was planning my kitchen, I found tons of useful info there, including a comparison of the pros/cons of different types.

Your wife may be right that the spotlights would look the best to the people seated at the counter. And I agree that Fluorescent is old technology. But also be aware that some types generate more heat than others - which could be important if you plan to store food in the cabinets.

I'd challenge you to eliminate peninsula uppers entirely. That is the one of the top pet peeves of renovators who have them. They are always in your face and separate you from any guests where you have to duck down to actually see them.

Put some pretty pendants over the peninsula instead and find another home for all the stuff it would contain.

I agree with hollysprings on this one. The biggest bang for the buck improvement in my facelift reno was getting rid of the cabinets (and soffit) over my peninsula. I easily found homes for everything I used to store there, most of it relegated to the garage. In fact, that's where that old cab ended up.

Our existing peninsula has wall cabinets under a soffit.
We find that these cabinets are quite handy. The soffit blocks
light, though. That's why we are suspending the new cabinets from the ceiling with stainless steel tubes. We are removing a
wall to enlarge the kitchen, but we still need these cabinets.