Your wants need full scale demolition and starting over. And a robust budget.

Maybe develop different wants?

From your post, it sounds like your budget isn't that big. Once you start in with the soffit, it will snowball from there, and you will be in for an entire kitchen overhaul which will cost tens of thousands.

Here are some quick ways to update your kitchen without spending a lot. Halve the number of plates along the top of the cabinets. It looks old-fashioned; just pare the display down to the best ones. Remove the window valence, which is fussy. Change out the chandelier over the dining table to something more current. Not an ultra-modern light fixture, cause that would look jarring. But that chandelier is a faux 1930's style, and changing it out for something without curlicues or little lamp shades would update your kitchen. Also remove the doily/wreath/candle from the table. Remove the stuff on top of the microwave, the picture above the paper towel holder, and the chicken clock. Your range and microwave both have clocks, so adding a chicken clock makes the kitchen look old-fashioned.

If you want to get more ambitious in your update, I would change out the counters, sink and faucet before I'd change the backsplash. The backsplash isn't bad at all.

Yes, definitely save up for a more satisfying remodel, if you are staying in the house for long. You have a decent amount of storage; what would you use the higher ones for, if you had them? Unless you're quite tall, you'd need to stand on something to reach them just to open the separate doors to see what's up there.

I agree with everything Miranda33 suggested for doing now, plus I would also suggest painting the Z brick a shade of cream that goes well with both the cabinets and the current countertop. Also, maybe install a shelf for the microwave to sit on, then you will have the counter space underneath. You could remove the fluorescent light by the fridge, and run LED tape lights under the cabs, and the microwave shelf.

We had Z brick and did a refresh by painting it; it turned it from dated fake brick to a textured wall.

If storage isn't an issue you could add just the face of doors above your wall cabinets. I would look like real cabinets. I'd get rid of the z brick, too.