I agree, the I/0 wasn't "neutered" on the 2014 Mini, it has two thunderbolt ports instead of only one on the 2012 and also hase faster wifi. What was "neutered" was the base model that is so slow as to be almost unusable, and the fact that the top 2012 Mini was 50% faster than the top 2014 Mini.
I have a blackmagic ssd dock and it made the 2014 model okay to use when you used a 2tb ssd as the boot drive.
I like the black magic dock and I am trying to find a second one at a good price. Rather then buying a 2018 mini.