One of the biggest wastes of money is removing perfectly good tile. Float a wood floor over it please.

Do you want to undercut all of your trim and doors? And have a hack install? There isn’t a thing wrong with that tile! It’s a classic. No reason to spend 20K to eliminate it. Learn to love it.

We do want to laminate wood planks over, the question is do we need to spend money on self leveling or just add foam underlayment? Our laminate is padded and 8mm thick

If your laminate is padded you are NOT allowed to add more. Your contractor is NOT 'selling' anything. They are telling you how this is supposed to work.

Right now you have a tile floor that is worth $12 - $15/sf. That cost was built into your purchase price. If you have a 1000sf home (just for argument's sake) then $12K - $15K of your purchase price is the flooring (just like the roof is worth $25K).

If you remove the tile or cover it in self-leveling compound (either way it is ruined) you are 'killing' a major part of your investment. You would then trade that $12 - $15/sf floor for something worth $4/sf. Your house just lost $8 - $10/sf.

I know you want 'wood' look something. I get it. Laminate is not equal in value to tile or solid hardwood. If you want to 'kill' flooring that is worth $12 - $15/sf then you really should REPLACE it with something equal in value = sold hardwood = $10 - $14/sf (including cost of installation).

And remember: laminate should NEVER go into a kitchen! Nor should it go into bathrooms or 'wet' entrances.

To answer your question, you are welcome to install the laminate over top of the tile (SAVE the tile...please please please) and live with the bounce and the clicking and the shifting and the issues with floor heights through doorways, etc, etc.

The tile is a SIGNIFICANT portion of your mortgage. Please leave it in place until you can afford to install an equally valuable floor such as solid or high-end engineered hardwood.

Another option is luxury vinyl planks. Also have a wood look like the laminate but they are waterproof and scratch resistant and you can install over existing floor. They have a bit of a "give" so you don't need to worry about leveling. There are a lot of great LVP options in the market; we're certain you can find the exact look you're going for! Good luck! Visit calvettabrothers.com for images of inspiration!

If the tile is relatively smooth a floating floor should go over it without needing to level/smooth. Check to make sure there are no high or low corners and address them if there are any.