The Whatsapp comparison doesn't make sense. Blackberry was a profitable B2B communications company with thousands of employees and deep hardware and networks expertise. Whatsapp was like 10 guys who never had a revenue strategy, who got acquihired by Facebook and were never heard from again.
I think the minis have a 5.4" screen, meanwhile the SE has a 4.7" screen. I own and prefer an SE.
>I do miss smaller phones, and especially a physical keyboard.
There's these "Clicks" but it's a rubber slip case that has an extended keyboard at the bottom. They're pretty hideous.
I also wanted a physical keyboard, so I waited and found on EBay a Moguls Mobile iPhone 6 Keyboard case, which actually fit the SE after I dremeled-out the camera hole a little! My rose tinted glasses were a bit strong though, because swype is faster than thumb physical qwerty.
I fondly miss when HTC was making innovative devices, when everything was up in the air. I had the G1, a mytouch4g slide, A Samsung Galaxy S relay. All QWERTY slider phones and all amazing experiences.
The 16e is the smallest phone in the current lineup, which is bigger than both.
I really like the 13 mini, I had been on Android since since maybe iphone 4. Not sure what I'll do when my current phone dies, I don't like having a big phone in my pocket.
I don't think it is the features, it is that too much information comes into the phone and then distracts us, because the senders of the information really want to you to listen to them.
If a "feature" is useful it is good to have it available when you NEED it.
Consider the feature "flashlight" on my phone. It's great to have it when you need it.
Or Clock. And Alarm. And Timer. I use them all the time.