I have no problem at all changing the stain of a cabinet. I'm not a real fan of painting if the original was stained, but some need so much patching that they'd look horrid stained. And some are crappy wood to begin with, so you aren't losing much if you paint them.
I'm not a fan of putting a contemporary polyurethane finish on an old cabinet - but that is OLD and the one in your picture may not qualify. I have several 50-60 era cabinets and they are veneer over hardboard (not veneer over a solid wood frame) and they have a poly type finish to begin with.
I personally do not think that any hardboard core furniture ever counts as something you need to worry about making changes to. Even when it's 100 years old, it will still be a mass produced, cheaply machine made piece of furniture that really wasn't made to last in the first place. So it will never be the same as some of the older, individually crafted cabinets.
I refresh the stain on all cabinets I refinish. Most often I'm staying close to the original, which often looks very different once the discolored finish has been removed (many turned orange/red as they aged).
BTW - it will be eaiser to darken the blond, but experiment as the old stain color will affect the new - way easier than bleaching the wood to remove the old stain so you can make a dark cabinet blond.
I really like the newer chemicals, way nicer than what I used 30 years ago, some of them were rather nasty and more difficult to work with.