I've never done a language upgrade. I don't know what it takes. I've heard 8->11 is painful and 11->17 is not. So doesn't that mean jumping from 8->17 directly is mostly the same as going from 8->11?

I'm not saying there is no benefit. I'm not saying there is no risk. I agree that going from 8->17 would be worse than 8->11->17.

My point is to list out reasons why a team may not be able to just spend a day upgrading (dependency issues) or why someone might not be given the time to do it.