The new SE is a pretty cool little phone, lots better than the 4 year old 6SE(?) I replaced If money had been tight, I really would not have been able to justify the 12 mini. My husband was very encouraging of the retirement gift splurge.
I recently replaced my my mom’s old 6S with the 12 mini. I was ready to get her the SE because I didn’t know if she would be able to adapt to the lack of a home button, but Verizon had a special that made the 12 basically free with the trade-in (don’t know if it’s still running). She was visiting at the time so I could coach her on how to use the new one. She got the hang of it quickly, and loves that it is the same physical size of the 6S to fit in her pocket, but has a larger screen.
The Verizon rep I dealt with was excellent, and also threw in a couple of credits and reduced the cost of the data on S’s Apple Watch. Verizon is one of the few big businesses that I’m consistently pleased with CS. YMMV.