The dating is the issue. The Exodus took place as the Middle Kingdom ended, 1450 BC, not in the 17th c BC.
Here are rulers and dates for the middle part of the 18th Dynasty. Dates are approximate:
Hatshepsut: 1479–1425 BC
Thutmose III: 1479–1425 BC (co-ruled with Hatshepsut, then became sole ruler)
Amenhotep II: 1427–1400 BC
Thutmose IV: 1400–1380? BC
Last decade I did some research on this period and the Moses question in that period.
* Hatshepsut was a powerful woman and co-ruled with Tutmose III for a number of years. Some say that she is the person responsible for Moses’s rise in the Egyptian court.
* Tutmose III may have been the sole ruler during the time of plagues and departure of Moses.
* Mt. Etna in Italy had a major eruption around 1450 which sent toxic ash to North Africa including Egypt.
* This ash could have caused pfisteria, an illness from ash contaminated Nile water that could kill fish, frogs, and people especially the very young. Jews preparing unleavened bread, cooked at a higher temperature than risen bread, would have destroyed some of this contamination in their principal food.
* Moses and Amenhotep II were probably enemies (perhaps jealousy for Hatshepsuts favor to Moses). Since Prince and subsequently Pharaoh Amenhotep II was very interested in and actually fought in the Levant, Moses wandered safely in the desert until Amenhotep was dead and there was less Egyptian interest in the Levant.
* When Moses and his Jews were leaving Egypt they followed a cloud of smoke by day and of fire by night. So obviously there was a volcano nearby. As a volcano is building magma jt fills areas underground and can cause land elevation. Once the main eruption takes place the land can drop quickly. Is this what caused the crossing of the dried water areas by Moses and then the drowning of the troops chasing them?
At any rate this is my guess regarding possible history of the Moses story, and I’m sticking to it. Might even use it as a book plot if I live long enough.