after advice from everyone here is our revised trip. we will do a loop trip starting in San Fran, down to la etc

please let me know your very helpful thoughts:

San francisco 4 nights
Big Sur 1 night
Santa Monica 4 nights
Las Vegas 4 nights
Death Valley 1 night
Yosemite 2 nights
San Francisco 1 night

total nights 17

Should we spend more time on the coast and stay in say Santa Barbara for example or is it ok to to just stay in Big sur and then have the 5 hour drive to do to santa monica?