While comparing the two makes some sense, I'll give you another viewpoint. I went from an iPad 1 to a Mini two months ago and have no regrets.
But: When I first handled the Mini in the Apple Store, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. It felt heavy for the size. The screen was so much smaller than I was used to seeing, and at the time, it seemed like a very minimal upgrade.
I hemmed and hawed and did nothing for another two months. In the meantime, it seemed everyone I knew was buying the Mini. I quizzed them all, trying to understand why they'd chosen what they did instead of the full size iPad with the coveted retina screen. The same two arguments came up over and over: portability and cost.
During a hospital stay, I was having trouble with the tiny keyboard on my iPhone 5. My old full size iPad was too heavy for me during my recovery. My husband brought me a Mini, hoping it would be a better fit. His thought was that if I couldn't get used to the size, we'd return it and pick up a full size one instead once I was well enough to use it.
Spending a week with the smaller form factor made the difference. I was sold. Even seeing it side by side with an iPad 4 and that gorgeous retina screen at the end of that week didn't change my mind. The portability factor wins by a mile. And to be fair, I have no problem with saving the extra $$ over either the larger iPads or the likely more expensive retina Mini...whenever it's finally released. I can live with non retina for another couple of years.
If it were my choice to make, I'd buy the refurb and try it out for a few days. The screen's going to look a bit sharper than your iPad 2 as the resolution is the same in a much smaller area. No, it's not retina. But it's plenty good enough to view movies and shows on.
If you find you don't like it, return it before your return period expires. While that's a bit of a nuisance, I think it's just hard to tell how YOU personally will like it until you have a decent amount of time to put it through its paces, and that's more than can be done in the store.
(I think if I'd spent more time on the iPad 4 in the store, I might have been suckered into that screen...and then been unhappy both with the price and the form factor. I was a heavy user of the iPad 1, but the Mini gets even more use because it fits in a normal purse, so it goes absolutely everywhere with me. And while retina would be nice, I was not at all happy about the price tag of buying another full size iPad. The current Mini is really my ideal iThing at this point, surpassing even my iPhone 5. FWIW, mine's used for for web surfing, light gaming, videos, and pretty heavy reading using the Kindle app. And a friend actually gave up her iPad 4 for a Mini after using mine--again, the portability factor won her over. She reads even more than I do, mostly on the train while commuting.)
