The iPad Air 3 & iPad Mini 5 were both released in March of 2019, 18 months ago. The Mini had virtually the same internals as the Air 3.
Today’s iPad updated changed nothing with the iPad Mini. But the Air 4 & iPad 8 were announced, the 8th gen now sports the same A12 Bionic as the Mini & supports both the original Apple Pencil & Smart Keyboard.
Perhaps the only advantages the Mini now has over the iPad 8 is that it has a laminated screen and a 7 MP 1080p FaceTime camera, vs 1.2 MP on the bigger iPad. So the Mini is now more logically a smaller version of the 10.2-in iPad 8 rather than a smaller iPad Air 3.