Hi PK,
Glad to see you again here!
Please find my answers below:
1) Clusters start at 2 nodes and max is 16 hosts
2) If you plan to deploy 17 nodes based on your requirements, I do recommend to split into 2 clusters (ie: 9 and 8 that will let you enough room to add hosts in the future if needed, in each cluster.
3) When you deploy your cluster, a storage policy (VSAN protection level, FTT) is applied based on number of nodes, please see: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/com.vmware.vsphere.vmc-aws-manage-data-center-vms.doc/GUID-EDBB551B-51B0-421B-9C44-6ECB66ED660B.html
4) If 2 hosts in a cluster in FTT=2, yes we will support and guarantee SLA if this applies to. Basically you look at the table and knowing which FTT you do want, you choose number of hosts.
5) If you split into many clusters (like for example 2), of course, SLA are at cluster level.
if you want to change storage policy you can read this: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vsan.doc/GUID-F52F0AE9-FB31-4236-B566-D9610B14C670.html
6) vSphere HA is of course available in VMC and if an hosts fails we will replace it automatically and evacuate VMs from failed hosts. This is what we call "Host remediation". This is provided by default, with no additional fees.
Hope that answered to your questions and I can warmly recommend to contact your local VMware team to address all your questions in the future as it will bring you an easier way to understand the service and all his mechanisms.
Cheers