Well, the chapter says it is more than influential, it says that the whore “rules over the kings of the earth”.
Yes, it says the great whore is a city but it also tells us that she sits on many waters,
And it tells us that she sits on a beast with seven heads and ten horns, that could mean that she is supported by the beast up until the eighth beast and the ten horns appear.
Rev 17
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
The mountains are not literal mountains they are kingdoms.
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
So it can not be a literal city.
I believe that excludes Jerusalem or any other literal city.
Somewhere I read that Revelation talks about 2 Babylons: a “political” Babylon, most likely a city, a capital of an empire, and a “religious” Babylon, a one-world religion that smooths out the path for Anti Christ to take over the world. I don’t remember all the details, but that would explain why some of the descriptions of Babylon, like you say, cannot refer to a city while in other parts it is clearly referring to one. I just moved and all my books are still packed, so I am writing from memory (not my best asset, lol).
“Rev 17
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
The mountains are not literal mountains they are kingdoms.”
This verse is explaining the symbolism of prior verses. It makes no sense to explain a symbol with another symbol that is left unexplained. So the mountains must be mountains, and not kingdoms. In the same way, when we are told the whore is a city, that is explaining the previous symbol used, so the city can’t be just another symbol.
Revelation is filled with symbols, but thankfully, God explained quite plainly what many of those symbols represent. Just because you don’t like the explanation doesn’t mean that it God didn’t make it perfectly clear. “The whore is a city” means just that, “the whore is a city”. If God had meant to say “the whore is a city, but the city is something else”, He would have just said that.
“15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
So it can not be a literal city.”
Any city that is a capitol of an empire would clearly fit that description, as the nature of an empire is to rule over diverse peoples and nations, from a central location.