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At f1.7, you will have less in focus areas, and detail in your in-focus areas will be mild.
At f5.6, you will have expanded depth of field, and the central part of your in-focus area will be SUPER SHARP. Depending on your scene and light, this could extend over the whole image if you focus carefully. You don't flatten the cone, the whole cone gets bigger and higher. How much higher depends on the lens.
At f16 you're spreading the cone out even more but you introduce a ceiling which lowers eat time you stop down, clipping the top of the cone off and softening the whole image.
Which you want depends on your artistic vision for each shot. Whether that's a dreamy blurry picture of your hot new gf or a hypercritical sharpness across the frame for product images for your business' new website.
