Wipe my macbook before installing Monterey?

That’s a personal choice, but beware:

macOS Monterey was made for the newer Apple silicone SoC’s and experiencing it on a 2017 iMac was shocking.

I wound up upgrading to a new Mac (the performance difference is day and night).

Good Luck, Steve! 😉

Monterey will work fine on you 2017 MacBook Pro. I have no idea why people try to scare others into not upgrading. One anecdotal experience on a single piece of hardware is not representative of the entire population.

Monterey will be dramatically different from Sierra, though. Especially the loss of use of any 32-bit apps you need. You may have to upgrade those, if even possible, or find a replacement. You cannot run 32-bit apps on Monterey.

Go64 can help identify your 32-bit apps. You can also identify them in System Information, Software > Applications.

I think the installers will now show a list of recently used 32-bit apps before it starts the installation.

If you have a spare external SSD, you could install onto that and see how it works. You could even Migrate your user data to that install. If it all works, you can then work on the internal drive.

It's actually somewhat difficult to do what you want. You would need to create a Bootable USB Installer, boot from that, Erase the drive, then install the OS. When the Setup Assistant runs you would Migrate your user from the old to the new (either direct connect or from Time Machine backup).

However, when you download the installer for a newer OS than you have installed, the downloaded installer will not be a "full" installer, and you cannot make a bootable USB installer from that "stub" installer.

You would need to update your Time Machine backup, then Upgrade your Sierra install. Once upgraded, you can download the full installer, create the bootable USB, and Erase/install Monterey "clean." Migrate your user from the Time Machine backup.

Below will WIPE ALL DATA including the Recovery Volume - were is No Recovery of any Data - Period.

To perform this action will require booting from a Bootable Installer. 

This will have to be performed from a Qualifying Computer to run the version of macOS to be made on the Bootable Installer. Example : Bootable Installer of Monterey would have to be done on a computer that Qualifies to run Monterey.

Once that is done read on for preparing the Destination computer 

>> Only works on Intel Based Apple Computers.

Extra Special Notation regarding the Touch ID equipped Apple Computer.

About Startup Security Utility and Must Enable from Recovery Mode the ability to boot from External Drive Before Attempting 

1 - Shutdown computer and disconnect all external drive Except the newly created Bootable Installer.

2- Restart and immediately hold the OPTION key until the Startup Manager appears and choose the USB Drive. 

3 - It will present options >> Disk Utilities >> View >> View ALL attached Drives. 

4 - Choose the Upper Most Drive ( not the volumes indented and list below ).

5 - The drive normally is called Apple Media or Apple SSD - that is the drive to Erase and format as APFS with the GUID Partition Map.

6 - Once that is done >> backup out of Disk Utilities and choose install macOS. 

7 - Follow the prompts and it may automatically reboot several time. 

8 - Upon a final reboot - Setup Assist will present with the newer version of macOS.

I agree with Barney and on your 2017 Macbook Pro you should have good performance as long as you have an SSD plus 8 GB (preferably 16 GB) RAM.

I can offer my anecdotal experience with a 2013 Macbook Air with 8 GB RAM, which can only run up through Big Sur, but I have also seen on my other Macs that Big Sur and Monterey perform similarly. Big Sur runs fine on that 2013 Macbook Air, which has a much slower processor than your 2017 Macbook Pro.

One thing I do not understand is how firmware updates are applied when upgrades are being performed. So out of caution, I might first go to High Sierra (some models get firmware updates with that install), then maybe Catalina, then Monterey. Each of these upgrade steps will likely take about an hour or so. If you are a bit more adventurous, you could try going directly from Sierra to Monterey. Apple's instructions indicate that it should work.

Make sure you have two good and verified backups before proceeding, either way. Should something go amiss, you can then boot into Recovery and reinstall a new MacOS and restore from the backup.

Welcome and Thank you too.

Do come back to the ASC Forums, in the future, if / or when additional question may arise