I think part of the problem is that the iPhone 11 cycle (late 2020 through mid-2021) wasn't very representative of how you would use a phone, because millions of people mostly stayed at home.
Another aspect is that the bulk of early sales are the Pro and Pro Max (we know this from an analyst question in a quarterly report), not so much because of their size but because those are the enthusiast models, and enthusiasts are far more likely to buy the newest phone as early as possible. The mini and non-Pro, meanwhile, get purchased throughout the year.
If you take that together, I don't see Apple deciding on the fate of the mini within a single year. It doesn't work out logistically: they have to decide at some point whether to finish designing the 13 mini or not, and then they have to order manufacturing. All that takes many months, so when would they have decided? Last winter is too early due both phenomena explained above. Summer is too late because manufacturing has already kicked into gear. There would've been a very small window in spring, and I think they would've only jumped on it if 12 mini sales hadn't just been bad but catastrophically bad, and I don't believe that's the case at all.
It's just, compared to the screeching voice of the minority (that's a reference
), actual sales aren't that large. "I would totally buy X if only Apple let me" doesn't always translate into actual purchases. I've seen people backtrack and say, "well, if only it were cheaper" — but that product, for example, already exists: the SE is cheaper, still very recent in terms of performance, and about as small as the mini.
(See also: people saying they'd buy a customizable medium-priced Mac tower. I bet some would. But not as many as one might think.)