I have trouble accepting that there's lots of remaining room for wires- especially if the neutral bus is also the ground bus, and romex is used.
Tracing circuits, and identifying wires, is always an issue, especially when a neutral is part of a multi-wire branch circuit.
It may be more of a design matter, but there is a real benefit to having circuits grouped logically, and a panel readily accessible to the area it serves. Today's kitchen alone sensibly calls for at least eight circuits- doesn't a subpanel begin to make sense?
I'm tired of seeing people spend $$$$ to get appliances in exactly the right shade of off-white, then begrudge the $40 a subpanel costs. I'm also tires of tracing circuits that meander through a house like a drunken spider, and are tapped into in seemingly random intervals.
