I think the main caveat of i17 is that it is a fairly large map and therefore requires a larger population in order to work well. In the old days when HL2RP was much more popular and you could see the big heavy hitter servers reaching 70~ people a day consistently i17 was ideal as you pretty much could find happenings in every area of the map.
In any case, over the years I've come to appreciate smaller and more dedicated player pops than larger but less enthusiastic ones. Quality over quantity, as they say, so perhaps for that reason City 8 is better when you really take a good hard look at things.
Still, i17 will always have a special place with me. It's the city of my childhood, which may be a somewhat depressing thing to say.