The 17 Pro has a much higher resolution camera than the 13 Pro, so even if you center crop of a photo taken with the 2x optical zoom to get you what you'd see with a 3x, it will still be higher resolution than the same photo taken with the 13 Pro.
That said, I too like a 70 mm lens, but I long ago got used to just moving closer to or further away from subjects to take photos with dedicated cameras depending on what lens I had on.
Either too wide (1x) or too narrow (4x), as seen in the live stream video, which was recorded with the iPhone 17 Pro.
I am currently on the 13 Pro, I find the 3x mode ideal for portrait photos and videos.
Is it only me with this impression? Could someone help me to jump back into Apple's reality distortion field?