it is because of the symfony and the rendering way the prestashop 1.7 uses, I compared the 1.6 and the 1.7 combination selection page at product page, on 1.6 product page ,the html was generated with smarty at the server end and the javascript(jquery) only update combination data(at browser end) when combination selection changes, but on 1.7,each time when selection change with combinations at product pages, the symfony (with its MVC twig template engine) will request changes with data updates(include the html strcuture) at server, and then renders the changes to the brower end, this is why when the network is worse, then the loading time is slower.
the quoted thread picture shows clearly, the longest time is the TTFB waiting time, so rolling back to 1.6 method to update the combination on product page is the ultimate solution to this problem.this is the key factor that I haven't update my shop to 1.7. Hope helps and the prestashop team can give attention to this.