[Jack]

Many long years ago, I had a 17-223 wildcat- long before Remington made it a factory round. Back in those Olden Days, finding as simple a thing as a 17 caliber cleaning rod was near impossible, and a 17 caliber bore brush? Forget it!
Heck, it was a huge advance for 17 shooters when Hornady came out with a 17 caliber bullet.
It should be remembered, too, that bore cleaning fluids have come a long way, too. In Thee Olden Days, Hoppe's #9 was the standard bore cleaner. Smells nice, works ok on powder fouling, but old #9 isn't much for cleaning copper fouling.
Combine those factors with the 'newness' of the 17 caliber bore, and barrel makers just learning how to make 17 caliber barrels (and those barrels were rather rough) , and you have a guaranteed fouling machine.
The 17 had a well deserved reputation in those days for being a vicious barrel fouler, for all of those reasons.
I started out cleaning mine with a long piece of brazing rod, shoving wet patches down the bore, because no one made a 17 caliber cleaning rod.
BTW, you surely can burn out a 17 caliber bore, just as easily as any other cartridge where you are putting a lot of powder down a relatively small bore- whether it's a 17,22, or 25, makes no difference at all.
17's are much better today, but I'm sure some of their reputation lingers from the first wave of 17 caliber rifles, and the difficulty of cleaning them.