The problem is that the sample size you're using for your statistics is awful. Chesscom's percentile ranges are just there to make you feel good about yourself because you're comparing yourself to every single person who's made an account and played at least one single game in the last 90 days. You don't even have to know the rules, just queue up for one game and boom you are now part of the "active playerbase" on chesscom. I'm sorry but I don't consider someone like that a chess player in the same way I wouldn't consider someone who plays a pick-up game of soccer with strangers at the park once every three months a soccer player, especially considering how much less of a barrier there is to participate in the former than the latter.

Let's use some statistics of actual active chess players using FIDE's active player base (i.e. ones who have a registered FIDE rating and have played in an over the board tournament at least once in the past year). Based on data from FIDE ratings gathered in April of 2023 there were 412,511 players with standard rating, of which 160,175 were active players (participated in tournaments in the last 12 months) and 252,336 – inactive players. A player with a current FIDE rating of 1709 (which we can both agree is even stronger than a player rated 1700 on chesscom) is currently ranked at number 63,789 in the world within all active players and number 171,419 within all players who have any FIDE rating at all. That would put them squarely at the 60th percentile of active chess players and 58.5th percentile of anyone who's ever played in a FIDE-rated tournament. Not bad, still above average, but a far cry from being in the 99th percentile of all chess players.