My mother still has an old iPhone because it fits her hand. They don't seem to get this anymore.

They releasee the iPhone 13 mini for all of the customers who wanted smaller phones

It sold very poorly. Despite all of the YouTubers and social media posts calling for smaller iPhones, the real demand for these is very small.

The older demographics generally prefer larger phones because they have larger screens, which are better for aging eyes.

I can't believe Apple expected the 13 mini to be a hot seller; most people holding out for a small phone probably would have already bought the 12 mini just a year prior. The 13 mini was an incremental update -- basically just alleged camera improvements that I could not discern myself in a few minutes of testing.

Smaller phones aren't great for older people because of the increased font size that they use. They can barely fit a sentence onto the screen.

Exactly, every older person I've seen has the Plus model (RIP) with screen text turned up to 150%. A small screen for someone with poor eyesight sounds like torture.