Will the new menus and UI of the Mini 2 be available to the original Mini?

I doubt. They have different screen resolution.

I'm sure that's right.  A whole bunch of under the hood changes too.  I was just hoping for a better UI.  The menus are fine, and messaging works WAY better via Earthmate anyway.  Breadcrumb lines are pretty useless for navigation, so that's not a big selling point either.  Battery life sounds improved, not that it was ever bad.  Also, USB C finally.  

The point is, many times Garmin could add features and nuances to existing units with software updates and choose not to. Other times old hardware can't run or display new things.  Again, just curious.

You would think garmin would add the new safety features to the inreach.  But Garmin does not always do the right thing.  Would be *** to see if garmin not add the new safety features to the device if it was just a simple software update. I wonder if they could be held responsible if something happened to someone and the only reason they did not add it was to try and force people to upgrade.  

Sort of how apple used to slow down older devices with updated OS to force them to upgrade to a new phone.

Garmin continues to support the original Mini. No one is forced to upgrade. I'm sure Garmin makes some money on the hardware sale. But the OP is correct - the real money is in the subscriptions. 

There are a lot of new features in the Mini2. Think of it like your cell phone - there is always newer hardware (or software) to which you CAN upgrade if you like the new features and you are willing to pay for them. If not, the older model keeps right on working. (Well, except for 3G ;))

Both the original Mini and the Mini 2 have a thing called TracBack. I have not tried the feature on the Mini 2. Looking at the manuals, it's not clear to me if the feature has the same functionality on both devices, or it is somehow different on the Mini 2.

My point it that any new SAFETY features should always be added to earlier generation of devices if they are capable. New UI or apps or anything does not matter.  But if something is added that could save somebodies life and it is a software update that is not added I feel garmin may have issues.  We are all paying for an expensive service for our safety.

I am not aware of any new safety-oriented features on the Mini 2. What did you have in mind?

They’re making a big deal about the auto tracked breadcrumb. My Mini tracks from the moment it’s on. I can see it in Earthmate. Is that really new?  

The Gear Junkie review talks about it a bunch. For some reason it won’t let me paste in the link.