IOS 17 update doesn't play well with my Mac Catalina

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) is Compatible with BigSur --> macOS Big Sur is compatible with these computers - Apple Support (IN)

Your iMac is 11 years old.

There was a time when computers were not changing much. Just getting faster. New software would run on old computers. Just slower. That is no longer the case. Newer software takes advantage of newer hardware capabilities.

As a software engineer, I can tell you that maintaining backward compatibility with quite old hardware is a lot of work. And that costs money. Much more than you think. Apple has always been quick to drop support for old hardware, and your iMac is no exception. You may like your 2013 iMac. But if you require a desktop computer that integrates well with iOS 17, it's time to move on.

Did you happen to find anything different after your last post or this is basically it?

Exact same boat - imac late 2013, works well. Recently updated to ios17 on phone and keep getting the update pop-up. Not causing me functional issues yet but probably at some point.

Something is telling me that they are doing this on purpose at this point. I can not transfer my pictures from phones running on iOS17 neither to a Mac running Catalina (Latest) or PC running windows 10. Before I was easily able to do this, while with some steps it worked. iPhone with iOS 15 on it still works just fine. In other words, if you don't own a Mac buy it and if you own an older Mac upgrade it. Insane.