A good looking sink with a flaw

Here’s a picture of our kitchen sink:

Note that, besides the bottom of the basin, there is no horizontal surface inside the sink where you can place an object. The handles for the faucet are outside the sink as well. I’m sure this looked great in the showroom, but here’s what happens with daily use. When you’re turning the water off, your hands are wet, so some water inevitably drips down your hand and gets on the counter. Similarly, you reach for the dishwashing liquid with wet hands and get more water on the counter. Or you use the sponge or scrubber, place it on the counter, and water drips off them and onto the counter. Soon, even if you were careful with whatever you were doing at the sink, you have a puddle of water on the counter. Yes, we have one of those tiny baskets that you’re supposed to be able to stick on the side of the basin (see left of the faucet in the above picture), but the suction cups on those things don’t hold for very long.

Utility sinks have mostly solved this problem. Check this out:

Notice that there is a horizontal surface next to the handles where you can put things like soap, a scrubber, etc. without having to leave them down in the basin. But there’s a rim around the edge so any water gathering there still can’t go outside the sink. Why can’t more sinks have that consideration in their design?

I imagine the tradeoff is the aesthetic appeal. People might not want the look of a utility sink in their kitchen or bathroom. But surely someone can design a good-looking sink that can still provide a surface where water on it would stay contained in the sink itself. Right?

Update: I used this problem to experiment with some 3D printing, by printing a scrubber holder. When you’re done with the scrubber, you hang it between the two “rails” on the front. The platform the scrubber ends up resting on is tilted toward the sink, with an opening in the front. Any water that would’ve pooled under it ends up flowing down the front, over a lip that helps it stay in place, and into the sink. Now if I can figure out something similar for the handles…