Is replacing the screen a good idea?

Hi Ryan, welcome to iFixit!

With phones exposed to water, you'll find that the display is usually the part most immediately affected by water, as you've discovered. The rest of it depends on whether the liquid actually got inside the phone or not. The majority of mid-to-upper range phones have a certain degree of water resistance, so there's a fair chance that it didn't get inside. Unfortunately, the only way to tell for sure is to open up the phone (remove the display) and check. There are two LDIs, or Liquid Damage Indicators on your phone, one inside the SIM tray slot and another inside near the USB port.

Verizon has a pretty good page on what to do in the case of liquid exposure and how to check the SIM tray LDI on your phone.

Google Pixel 7 / 7 Pro - Check for Physical Damage - Verizon

Since you're going to have to replace the display anyway, use the Google Pixel 7 Screen Replacement guide to open the phone so you can check the inside LDI near the charging port. At the same time you can look to see if there is any other sign of water drops or condensation inside; if not, you'll probably be okay with just replacing the screen.

Google Pixel 7 Screen Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide

However, if you do find signs of water inside the phone, things get a lot more serious. The problem isn't so much the water itself, it's the contaminants it leaves behind when it evaporates. Those contaminants will corrode solder and components inside, eventually killing the phone. Batteries are the second thing most affected by water, so if there is liquid inside, you'll want to go ahead and figure on replacing the battery as well.

After that, you have to clean the interior components of the phone, which means significant disassembly of the phone and cleaning the individual parts. This guide, although written for an iPhone, is just as applicable to your Pixel.

iPhone Liquid Damage Repair - iFixit Repair Guide

The other alternative, should you find water in the phone, would be to take it to a repair shop that specializes in liquid damage. Unfortunately, most of them only work to recover data rather than try to rescue your phone, and none of them will guarantee their repair long-term, but that would be your best bet for keeping the phone running for the foreseeable future.

The upshot is, if no water got inside, then yes, definitely replacing the screen would be worthwhile.

Hopefully that gives you all the information you might need to decide how to proceed. Be sure to come on back and let us know how it all turns out; your experience may well help the next person who comes along with the same problem.