You've never done any furniture refinishing, have you? You are not ever getting those lighter, even if you could sand off the protective varnish, and sand through how deep the stain goes down into the wood and veneer. Which you would have to do, to start over staining them. HUGE amount of labor.

You can only paint, or attempt to gel stain them. Gel staining is a semi opaque stain/paint hybrid, and you can only go darker, to a whole lot darker. It takes a lot of skill to no be blotchy using it. And you still have to do a lot of the same prep you would for painting. Clean within an inch of it's life, and then sand. That's all DIY. Labor for a pro finisher to do any of this, and do a good job, is easily 10K.

I definitely will not be doing the work myself. It would be professionally done. Not looking to spend 10k. So might have to rethink if that is the quote I receive

Thank you for suggesting sampling the stain colors on a door panel first. I am having the hinges updated to concealed self closing.

I would paint the cabinets.

You are wasting money in the wrong order. Cabinet assessments and changes come first, to assess if they are even worth spending 10K on countertops to top them. Which it wasn’t.

At a minimum consider painting your uppers.

@Zumi I do not think the investment in my countertops was a waste or wrong order. My countertops were builder grade 30 year laminate. My cabinets are in good shape, so replacement isn't on the table. At minimum refinishing them is on the table. If I were looking to get new cabinets then I agree, new cabinets before countertops. My cabinets are solid wood, whereas reasonably priced new cabinets are pressed wood. Which I am not interested in.

See #5

https://www.homeglowdesign.com/2017/05/06/5-fresh-looks-natural-wood-kitchen-cabinets/

Sure, you can have those painted! 8-12K average, for an actual cabinet finish. Never ever use a painter who uses house pant. Refinishing is 10X more work, with 10X more skill needed. Those are not refinishable. It just is not economically feasible to pay more for the labor than the cabinets are worth. They should have been replaced.

Update I got new oak doors and had my contractor stain them. I am very pleased with the result. Total out of pocket for the refacing $3,300. Here is a video of the process. https://youtu.be/-0MxZSZzKBk?si=jmthL_DAybBFqsBW