I'm downloading 16.7.2 on an iPad Pro 11" and two iPad Pros 10.5s and 12PM at the moment.
I don't usually update at first release as with the 17 and others before it there were several bugs that needed updates soon thereafter.
iPad OS 17 runs fine on all of the devices i've tried.
The only let down, in terms of performance I've had so far is my fathers iPad pro 9.7 and iOS 16.
Batteries fine but compared to iOS 15 it feels a tad bit slower with Safari taking a few ms longer to start.
Now its fairly filled with crap apps so it could prob be wiped and reinstalled, but still. iOS was running better on that device. Wouldn't recommend anyone sticking around on older OS these days but still something worth knowing.
Turning off animated backgrounds, background sync and so on seem to have improved the performance somewhat.