skip 16.7 and go straight to 17?

I have an iPad Pro 11 inch 3rd generation. A couple of weeks ago I tried to install the most recent update (16.7?). but ran into a problem. the iPad stuck on 'verifying update' for over half an hour. I found instructions in the forums on how to get out of that and delete a possibly corrupted download.

I left it at that until today, and decided to try again. Today, I downloaded the update (16.7), went to install it and guess what! stuck on verifying update again. So repeated what I did a couple of weeks ago (hard reset, delete downloaded update, hard reset).

Tried one more time today to update to 16.7. and one more time got stuck on 16.7 "verifying update'.

I noticed that Version 17 is an option for this iPad.

Should I quit trying to update to 16.7 and go straight to Version 17?

And if I keep getting stuck at 'verifying update' what should I do?

Thanks!