I updated the question and gave a bit more reasoning to why it's ridiculous that we aren't able to properly tell the difference between an iPad Mini and an iPad 2.

Short version: It's not just about size. It's about weight and form factor. The iPad mini can and will be used differently, like being held with one hand. Designers/ developers such as myself should be able to provide users with a different default controlscheme for the Mini that could make advantage of this situation (such as using tap to walk instead of a virtual thumbstick - but that's just an arbitrary example).