Ask the Midwest

With smaller cabinets I would actually recommend getting smaller sized dishes as they will fit smaller cabinets easier, will be easier to hand wash if you need one cleaned right away, and have the overall benefit of discouraging large amounts of food. Then you only need about double the number of people for breakage or being dirty.

I really want to replace my heavy stone dishes with lightweight Corelle ones, but this question is also preventing me from moving forward. There are two people in my household. Four sets isn't enough. Would six work? They come in set of eight. Should I get a set? I don't really need the types of bowls that come in the set. Maybe I should get 10 plates and 4 bowls since we don't use bowls as much. Can I have an uneven number of plates and bowls?!?

You need enough plates to last for two meals without doing dishes. More is obviously better, but if you have limited cabinet space, you're kind of out of luck.

I will add that saucers can be used as plates for small snacks and sandwiches. There is no need to use a dinner plate for anything that can fit on a saucer.

I wish I could help you with such a deeply philosophical question. I've lived in a "this is my bowl, there are many like it but this one is mine" house and currently live in a "that's objectively too many bowls" house. When I lived by myself I had a set of 4 for everything but I don't know if that scales well with a family.