What type of SSD to SATA/USB adapter do I need for this MacBook Pro?

Likely the system was running Sierra or older MacOS so it couldn’t understand your drives APFS formatted SSD.

most likely it would be a drive firmware issue, not at all APFS related.

from the websearch - Apple uses the different firmware in order to render drives compatible with the newer models of Macbooks not working on older models. I really hope someone in America will sue them for such an abuse.

and now imagine the situation - let's say you have spilled the water over your corporate Macbook. Apple's repair bill is just a few dollars short of the price of the new Macbook. Well you could probably go some place else for the fix.

Agh, wait, the repair shop will need the SSD to test the results of the repair with and since this is a non standard disk they will insist on having your HD. So what if the NDA or something like that prohibits you from sending your HD with the computer as it is? You can do literally nothing with your HD unless you have another Macbook of the same generation available to you for the swap.

Apple "geniuses" will just say - no we can't do anything (how genius is that?)

I am sorry but with such an attitude toward the end user Apple as a brand is dead to me.

Has anyone come up with an adapter for this type of drive yet? I need to recover some data from a damaged laptop.

Sadly, nothing! As Apple has moved on to soldered storage I don't think the market is there to create anything. The Fn models came to an end in 2018.

My guess nobody in the right mind will be willing to invest in creating the adapter for the proprietary(!) interface that have been used only in 2016/2017 generation of Macbooks. It is not a question of the time frame needed for the adapter's design. There is an Apple's "data recovery" kit available for two hundred and something dollars on ebay that could probably be used with the other "test/bench" system but details for those are hard to come by. Most probably the most economical way to recover your data will be through the A1708 oriented repair professional but you'll be lucky though to have one in your town. Good luck.

The only adapter available today is the "NVMe M.2 NGFF SSD for 2016 2017 13" MacBook Pro A1708 Adapter" Ebay's object number 313059341517 with unknown spacial compatibility.

Sorry Guy, This case doesn't support the wider connector used on the 2016/16 Fn model SSD's.

Here's a good reference The Ultimate Guide to Apple’s Proprietary SSDs take a look for your self.