I disagree with you. I think learning openings will help you just as much as tactics even at a level way below 1700. I posted about this on my site [1] but the tl:dr is that opening principles are not always enough to get to a good position and learning openings the right way will help you develop at later stages.

[1] https://listudy.org/en/blog/when-to-learn-chess-openings