My grandfather referred to the D17 as the 'best hay-making tractor ever designed', and there's probably many more reasons, but he traded his WD45 for it in '59, and he generally didn't trade machines off.
The ergonomics of the D17 was probably every bit as responsible for his naming it, as anything else. The seat flips rearward two ways, and that leaves room for operator to stand on the right side footwell, facing left, and operating the steering wheel and power director with right hand, but having clear view of the rear activities looking to your left.
IIRC the baler we used was a New Holland, and the pickup was to the right side, so not exactly optimal for standing facing left, but I never found myself uncomfortable with the pickup inlet being on that side. It's been a LONG time since I used that rig (almost three decades), but I recall that standing sideways on that platform made it really easy to watch what was happening on the hayrack and that big flywheel swinging on the end of the PTO shaft.
For raking, though, the position couldn't have been better. Grandpa had a side-delivery Allis rake, and it directed to the left side, so when standing on the side platform, I could see every inch of that rake, and (as long as he wasn't standing on the other platform yelling in my ear), I could see the hitch swing towards the tires as I made my turns.
In the case of both implements, the power director in my right hand, being able to pick between high, neutral, and low, with the PTO and hydraulics still active, plus power steering and the ability to go from seated, to side-standing position, and back with no effort, got me thinking that running implements with a tractor was easy.
Of course, I've run many other pieces of machinery since then, and have found that there's many other machines, and some did some things better, some not so much. I haven't used them all, but I'll agree with my Grandfather, that the D17 was really well suited to baling hay.
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