Goofy look. Quartz burns. So does wood. Neither should be in the no combustibles zone. Despite what some blogger, not an actual educated designer, does.

Much of the cost of stone is the fabrication and creating the edges. So your inspiration pictures might cost more than just doing the stone straight up to the hood height because there would potentially be more finished edges. I'm not a fabricator, so this is just a semi-educated guess.

Also, in many cases you need to buy the whole slab, so the few square feet you'd save in a scenario like your last few pictures might not save you money. (Unless you need to buy a whole new slab just for the extra square feet to go up to the hood.)

One more thing... in your inspiration picture with the cabinets down to the counter right next to the cooktop: please don't do that. That seems very impractical as it cuts way down on your landing space next to your stove.