Finally figured it out. Dang, was starting to look at android phones. If you have done all the routine things and still no help, see if you have the google one app. Delete it. Even if you have VPN turned off, doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter that it all worked fine before the 17 update. I did everything including a complete restore of my phone, but since other iphones in the home with the same ios update did not have the problem, I figured it was some combination of the update and an app. I knew there was talk of von software causing an issue and I had this turned off. Didn’t matter. As soon as I deleted the google one app, wifi auto join and password entry was automatic once again. I am sure apple knows this but probably doesn’t care so much since it is a google *** incompatibility with the new upgrade, but son of a … Not a fun time figuring that out. Really odd that despite turned off in the main settings it was preventing my auto wifi recognition. I’d would think that worth looking at any VPN app as a possible suspect. Hope this helps anyone in this same situation.