The problem is that you don't really understand how to use the camera properly.
You need to make sure in Settings > Camera, that Macro Control is turned ON.
Then, with your 1x camera selected, as you get closer to an object, the camera will autoswitch to the 0.5 lens and put it in macro-crop mode (which is what you don't want). But with macro-control turned on, as it auto-switches to the wide lens, you'll see a yellow flower-icon in the lower left of the camera app. Tap that so that it is grayed out, and then it will no longer autoswitch from the 1X camera to the 0.5, and you'll get a photo from the 1X camera.
This is the button that you want to turn OFF (you want it gray, not yellow):
So no, the Air doesn't have a better camera. The 17 Pro can give the exact same results as the Air, but you need to turn off the auto macro-switch
Air doesn't have macro
