I thiught
I thought something would change in the refurbished store if I'd wait a month but not really!
So would u think 2016 would not lose out in 4k editing? i saw some youtube reviews and I'm hesitant since 2017 model seems really dedicated to 4k.. I wish I had someone with 2016 model to tell me if I'd be able to edit videos from my 4k gopro or not!!
Of course it can edit 4K videos, they're both high end laptops! The only difference is the dedicated hardware encoding for 4K 10bit (Specifically 10bit, Skylake has 8bit). And again only hardware, both are more than capable of software encoding/decoding.
Basically the way to think about it, is the 2017 is more efficient with 10bit, and will use less power (Saving battery life, but who edits 10bit on battery that much?). We're waiting for High Sierra which has some changes to the way MacOS handles these files at the moment, which should bring it all in-line.
If you're a professional editor working on large scale projects which are demanding 10bit HDR content, then the 2017 is worthwhile. If you're like everyone else, then the 2016 is more than adequate. As I mentioned earlier 10bit is very niche at the moment and won't become saturated till at least another 3-4 years, and will likely take 5-6 before becoming standard. The 2016 can work with these files, but the question is really over real-time playback (Say you for some reason wanted to watch 4K 10bit films on a screen that is neither 10bit or 4K; obviously different for editors...).
So I'd get the 2016 today and look to upgrade in 3-4 years time. If you specifically wanted the 10bit side you're paying a lot for something you're not going to make use of for some time, by which time the prices of that technology will be mainstream and cheaper.
Check if your recording equipment can even record at 4K 10bit too.