Good napkin calculus exercise: how much the extra square meter of the kitchen in a typical apartment costs? (For US readers: most fridge users in the world are living in apartments, not houses). Because you cannot just add one square meter there, size of the kitchen is predetermined by an architect. So in order to use a chest instead of vertical design one have to rent or buy a bigger apartment. And then let's calculate extra heating/air conditioning cost for those bigger apartment too.

It's good to live in a big house and have a choice. But realistically almost no one else has that choice.