I have installed Stretch on an SSD, with uefi, without any trouble.
Me, as well (9.8). Here's one thing to watch out for.Unlike Ubuntu, MInt, etc, debian will not install non-free drivers by default.
In the virtualbox scenario you had before, VB does an excellent of emulating the network (esp) WiFi and it "just works".
But once you actually install debian**; wifi won't work if the drivers needed are from a non-free vendor; like the sneaky-ME-blackbox Intel types.
So:a. Check into your wifi hardware first -- and have the appropriate drivers ready to install via a flash drive (into /lib/firmware) or the network; etc.
b. My own install asked for Intel drivers iwlwifi-8265-26.ucode, iwlwifi-8265-25.ucode, iwlwifi-8265-24.ucode, iwlwifi-8265-23.ucode that do not actually exist. I finally went with iwlwifi-8265-22.ucode; which does exist and it all worked beautifully. I just rebooted and wifi popped right up.
c. ** You CAN install using the full stretch + non-free iso; and that will probably work fine.
Good luck .