I'm not sure that duals would breathe better or not, after all, the limiting restriction is the port window on the case, or perhaps the rotary valve itself. There is a little more restriction of having a manifold to direct the air through the single carb, but I think it's negligible. I'm not sure why the duals are better. I know the 587 had a smaller carb, and it had a triangular portion where it bolts to the flame arrestor. Now that was definitely a different carb, but you're saying that the 717 carb looks identical to the 787 but is just bored smaller? Interesting.
I also agree, the single carb is much easier to tune. Dual carbs are twice as much of a pain, and twice as expensive to work on.