The more room you allow, the less tunnel effect you will have. And if you choose French doors, the wider you will be able to swing them open, as well. We had French doors and removed them for a quality slider as the doors just got in the way and took up huge amounts of space for the swing. Unless you need the doorway width that French doors will allow, then I'd vote slider.

We will have 6" of space between the edge of the patio door trim and the countertop at the end of our cabinet run.

However, I think the direction of the door swing is very important as @beautybutdebtfree has noted. Our door is an outswing / opens out onto the deck so this isn't an issue in our situation.

One other thing to consider is the type of window treatment, if any, you plan to install over the door. Depending on what you are selecting, you may need extra space for that as well. We will not have any treatment over the door and therefore, I was comfortable with the 6" of space.

I only have about 6" between fridge (no panel) and patio slider. That doesn't leave enough room for the drapes to stack back. Since that is the side of the door that opens, it's even more of a pain as the dogs tend to rub on the drapes coming in and out. I think 12" between door and cabinets would be preferable.

Re: the outswing door setup, a couple of things to keep in mind:

Make sure there are not any permitting issues related to having an outswing door. Our installer said that sometimes comes up depending on what city he is working in; but it wasn't an issue for us.

Think about whether you are comfortable forgoing a screen or having a retractable screen that will be mounted on the inside of the door trim. You cannot have an exterior mounted screen with a patio door that has an outswing. We decided to install a retractable screen on the inside as we will have the door open frequently from spring through fall. (the screen is not in yet, otherwise, I would share a picture - you can see lots of examples on Houzz)

Another benefit we find to the outswing door if you have a handle (vs. knob) is that it's so much easier to open when you are carrying a platter of food out to the deck / grill! We didn't realize this added feature until the door was installed and I love it!

As long as the above items are not issues for you and you have enough clearance for the door to swing out to the deck, I say go for it!

Well, our situation is a little different in that our run, which does include the sink and dishwasher, also has the refrigerator at the end. And the area where our patio door is we made into a sort of ''mudroom'' entrance with a new closet. So our run goes right up to the door:

We avoided the tunnel feeling just with how our space is laid out. This is the other end of that space:

Sliders are great, and I agree they really are wonderful space savers. Just make sure, as mentioned above, that you get good ones. One of the things I was most excited about was replacing the 30 y/o sliders we had.

We have an Anderson. There are higher end than that even, but it's a good solid double paned heavy slider that works well for us.

A word of caution: Another reason we pulled the French doors was we had designed them to swing out. But due to the fact that they were installed into the framing wall and we have brick outside the framing, the brick stuck out beyond the doors (the doors ended up inset into the outer wall by the depth of the brick, that is) so they would only open 90 degrees, which was dangerous in any sort of breeze. If you have outward swing French doors, be sure they are flush with the OUTER wall in order to be able to open back "180" degrees. Even then, they are subject to winds whenever open. No worries with the slider. Window treatment is much easier as well with a slider, and you will want one to block out intense sun if yours is on a sun exposed side.

Spartan99 makes a good point. While codes vary locally and there are exceptions, this link is generally what enforcement has in mind:

Here is a link that might be useful: Door swing code

As spartan suggests, the window treatment affects the decision. We knew we were going to use vertical blinds that pulled to one side away from the kitchen. The opening side is 4' next to the kitchen cabinets and then there are two fixed panels - in the summer we like to be able to open the blinds enough to get in and out but still have most of the window covered for shade.

Therefore we didn't need room for the window covering to stack on the kitchen end. We brought the base run of cabinets to about an inch of the door frame so the counter overhang comes almost to the frame.

The uppers end farther away from the door so that they don't interfere with the view out the door while standing at the island. That helps avoid a tunnel effect (though in our case it wouldn't really be a tunnel as the window area is most of the width of the family room.

Those base cabinets serve the baking zone, coffee and tea making supplies and the extra width helped with storing what we want in that zone while providing counter space for the mixer, bread machine and espresso maker.

I think it depends on the size of your room. I needed to squeeze every inch of space from our small 10'x10'-6" kitchen, so I ran the cabinets to about an inch from the door casing. This left just enough space for the counter and backsplash overhangs to clear the casing.
Our Dutch door swings out, (the top half of which stays open probably over 300 days a year :)

Here's a pic of ours. I wish the door was moved over a foot or two, for more room to walk by when people are sitting there.
Considering a banquet someday, to replace the square table, to give us a little more room. It's a tight space.

We have a french door at the end of a run of cabinets in the kitchen. There was spaced allowed for a full piece of wide trim and a skinny reveal of paint. We actually had to notch the trim for the counter overhang. This is where a couple of inches would have been nice to have prevented that.

Thanks everyone! The info about the codes was helpful and I will definitely look into my town code to see if I can do the out swing french door. If not that then I'll probably get sliders. Not sure about window treatments. Probably won't do any as we have other french doors on that side of the house with no treatments. And it was very helpful to see the photos showing the spacing people have. Made me feel comfortable if we have to have the door close to the cabinets as I too need to squeeze as many inches out of the space as possible! :)