Ok ok, here me out. I think we're actually quite close on this. You said

Traditionally, many interpret the woman as Israel or the faithful remnant of God's people, who give birth to the Messiah (Revelation 12:1-2). This aligns with the imagery of the sun, moon, and stars, pointing to Joseph's dream in Genesis 37:9-11."

Can this not be attributed to both Israel and Christians? As it is said we are "grafted in" to the Israel vine, which would lump us together...And the Roman govt was there shortly after this "new thing" was being born to consume it! I can imagine how tricky for a believer it must have been to see that this "Holy Roman Empire" was not the same faith, there were probably many who saw it as a move of God, "look even the pagan Romans have converted!" at least until the overt wickedness begun (I assume this took some time but could be wrong).

So we have the birthing of a new (updated is probably a better term) faith, with God now dwelling in our hearts, and we have a political system (the dragon) there in wait and trying to devour this and make it into their own machination.

To sum up, while there are various interpretations, my view aligns with seeing the woman in Revelation 12 as representing Israel (based on the direct reference to Joseph’s dreams), the faithful remnant, or the early Christian community. The harlot in Revelation 17 could then symbolize Jerusalem in its state of apostasy, drawing from Old Testament references to Jerusalem as a harlot (Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; Ezekiel 16:1-43).

The harlot! Lets goo. So: if it's Jerusalem, how could it fit the title "mother" and also the description of "with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication"? I think these two are critical in ID'ing her. If you compare Jerusalem and Babylon, who had more of an influence over the kings of the earth? Israel was always pretty secluded and at the time of Christ they were basically dominated by Rome. How could Jerusalem be said to have influenced Rome in this way? I would argue that it was the other way around.. Rome influenced Jerusalem. Also, it's kind of cheeky as it's in her name itself "Mystery Babylon"... Why would she be called that? I believe John wrote Revelation in such coded language to not tip off the Roman gov't at the time or they would have stopped the circulation of the book. If it was Jerusalem in his crosshairs I don't see why he would need to veil it.