Been quiet here for a couple days, but not ignoring ya'll! Thanks for all the input...definitely helpful! No pretty pictures or renders in this update...maybe later tonight
Wife and I had some time blocked out on our calendars on Tuesday night to review where we each were on our progress on the bedroom updates. Unfortunately setting calendar appts with reminders seems to be the most effective way for us to keep progress like this moving....slaves to the corporate mindset and world I guess...oh well
I earned brownie points as I had more done

....but they were quickly met with

when I talked thru what I was thinking. As things progressed we mostly got on the same page, fair amount of CAD work and "proving" left to do....but here is at least where we're leaning now.
(2) custom casework cabinets roughly 28" wide x 36" or so deep with a sloped ceiling to maximize space
Full depth drawers on the bottom 30" or so mounted on 36" slides which on something that will probably be a 44" deep drawer will be mostly full extension and a big cost savings vs a 44 or 48" slide
Still working thru the drawer height and lots of revisions to come....but likely going to have (1) 12-14" deep drawer to hold carry-on suitcases, then probably 8" deep for the remaining ones.
Drawers from that approximately 30" mark up to 48" high for normal clothes
Adjustable height shelves from 48" up to the top...likely for a lot of her shoes
I have a fair amount of work to prove/disprove that we'll have equivalent or greater drawer space then we have today....I think it'll be there but will find out as I work up the details
The "gap" between the 2 dresser units is then "scope creep" of a pull out clothes hamper. She's got roughly 20" deep by 36" wide stand up hamper with 2 cloth bags she really likes and I would like it out of sight, so going to attempt to put a 3 bag unit on a set of full extension slides to take advantage of the full depth of that center gap between the cabinets. As yet undecided on what goes above that section....will most likely depend on the dresser space math results and how much additional space we need to find....
And while staring at the project space I realized yesterday that I'm thinking about putting a 28" wide frame/carcass in a closet that has a 24" wide doorway....grrrr
So I'm probably going to have to do final assembly and glueup of the casework boxes in the closet itself which is an added hurdle I hadn't thought of but super glad I realized it early on!