Apple needs to make phones in big quantities for their economies of scale to function, but the market for small phones is small enough that it only makes sense to produce one every few years. (source: one of their yearly reports, IIRC)
I have read books on this thing, because, guess what, you can change font size on any reader and actually hold it for hours without your arm falling off.
Have cracked every phone so far even with a case. But if you drop the mini, the low weight works in your favor.
Screen is too small? Why not get a second one? I just airplayed the US Open from my mini to my Samsung TV.
I have no idea why Apple does not continue to make the best iPhone, but I‘ll keep this one for as long as I get updates.
This video makes a great point about small phones at scale that changed my mind about demanding small phones from large companies
Apple once tried to work around this with the iPad mini by simply not offering that model with the lowest storage, so you HAD to pay their "storage upgrade tax" if you wanted a mini at all.