I don't know if it is enough of a reason, I still use by 12 and charge it and my Airpods all via magsafe which is USB-C

If I don't need to use the lightning port, I don't need to use what would be the USB C port.

I am looking to upgrade to the 17 potentially, but USB-C to me isn't a key factor.

I am with you- magsafe is great for charging all the things and it is how I charge all my stuff currently. I will say that despite that, moving to USB-C is a big deal for me. As a household of 7 having different cables for everything becomes a chore whereas standardizing on USB-C saves us a ton of headaches. Kids phones need charging? Grab one of our dozens of USB-C cables and one of our many USB bricks and go. For me- it has been a slow climb but I have been slowly moving everything we have over to USB-C. When completed I can put all the other cables (mini usb, micro usb, lightning, that weird usb-3 thing some androids/ext harddrives used, etc) into my old cable foot locker.