I know that the iPhone Mini users are few but vocal. Instead of a yearly refresh of the mini, they should do a run every 5 years or so. Make a bunch, sell out of inventory by year 3, make a new one year 5 with updates matching the spec/price de jour.

It's like a LTR (Long term release) iPhone.

I know there are Apple Engineers lurking here, start the whisper campaign!

I’m not sure this makes sense on a purely hardware sales sense but with Apple moving toward increasing software profits by ecosystem users, it would seem to make sense to do a long release cycle phone to expand the ecosystem. The iPhone Mini might not justify manufacture on its own, but 30-40 million extra Apple One purchasers might.