Should I switch from a Part 141 to a 61

Honestly I think there needs to be a dose of introspective thought here. Having gone from a very loose 61 operation, to a very strict 141 operation for the rest of my training, I know the feeling. I’m not trying to be dismissive, and your instructor could be a factor here as well, but I don’t think your blame is well placed in the part 141 part of the program. I assume you want to be a professional pilot of some sort if you are going the 141 route, wherever you go professionally it is often going to be a very structured check the boxes atmosphere. That is part of what most 141 programs try to train you for. Things like skipping checklist items aren’t going to be tolerated anywhere professionally, and that is why they aren’t tolerated as a student. Now, could your CFI have gone over the top, absolutely, and if you two just aren’t getting along well then request a different instructor. An instructor who can be great for one student can be terrible for another, there is a heavy degree of personal compatibility there. The school should be willing and able to accommodate that request. I worry that your reason for going to a part 61 is that it will be less strict on mistakes. Firstly, if you have a good instructor, it won’t be. Secondly, that shouldn’t be something you are looking for. You are there to iron out the mistakes. If flying was as easy as reading the procedures and executing on them everyone would get their entire flight course done in a single flight, just read the manual before you show up. Everyone had/has something they just couldn’t get their head around. Anyone who says they never repeated a module or had that one maneuver it took them a while to get quite right is lying to you. At 17 hours you have just started, don’t get frustrated if things are hard and mistakes are frequent. Get worried if those things are still hard and those mistakes are still frequent at 170 hours, and then get worried if your 170 hour mistakes are still frequent at 1,700 hours. And, at 1,700 hours you will still be making mistakes. We are human, just about everyone has something they could have done better on their last flight, it’s about finding those mistakes, correcting them, and learning from your past errors/struggles. That takes a positive growth mindset to do, not a mindset of blaming the system around you for being too harsh. If they are training you to the PPL ACS then they aren’t being too harsh. If day 1 they print out the ATP ACS and expect you to meet it as a student pilot then maybe we can have a conversation, but until then, even if your instructor is maybe short, or not a good match for you, the system around you isn’t the problem likely.