Personally I would tell them to wait a 8 months to a year to do anything as they may decide they hate the layout and it does not work for them at all and then to replace the cabinets / tops you will be throwing the money spent now away or the money they spend now will force them to live with a kitchen they hate.

Hmm. I think floating shelves on that small wall will look a little weird, and, to your point, won't store much anyway. If they want to have open shelving for display, I'd put it on the wall in the breakfast area, the one that's opposite the range wall. Hang some art above the extended countertop instead.

I agree with millworkman. They should live with the space, doing such generally saves people a lot of money. I would have found a free standing table for that space to use in the meantime. However, if they have people coming to template they have probably already put down deposits and are committed. The floating shelves can be decided on later, once the counter is in unless that cost has already been committed.

Pretty inconvenient to have to reach under the counter to drop stuff in the trash. There's a reason the cabinets stop where they do and you see it but want to ignore it.

"the wall oddly goes back about 1-2 inch just past where the existing upper cabinets are hung"

I would forget that "end of the cabinet" project. Not necessary, less helpful than they may think, and it will crowd the slider and switches.

Would the backsplash stay the same? so just the countertop extending? I’d leave it as is and forego the shelves too.

What’s the rush! It is a major mistake to spend money on new counters before they move in and discover other things they want to do to make the kitchen more useful and more attractive. I was convinced I wanted a white kitchen before we moved into this current house. Luckily, this isn’t my first house so I knew my ideas would change after I actually worked and lived in this kitchen. One year later, after measuring and planning, shopping and collecting ideas, we finally remodeled our kitchen. Nothing I thought I would design for this kitchen made the final cut. There is no film crew coming to take pictures of that house next week. This is a false deadline. Next year you will be posting about how to correct the cabinets and counters and work space in this kitchen. They are planning to spend thousands on painting and counters that will have to be replaced when they discover the mistakes. They are not going to like me for saying all this, but, they are spending thousands of dollars.

Renovate in haste, repent at leisure.

Hope those boob lights are going to be replaced :)