No doubt it could fit. But Apple also used a 65W CPU in the mini, not 45W like the MBP. Also, the mini is designed to be quieter than the MBP; the MBP can be quite loud under heavy loads.
But sure, Apple could have used a bigger enclosure, larger/faster fan, a lower-wattage CPU or had a more expensive base model than the mini they delivered, if they wanted to have a discrete GPU. And they would have, if it had been a higher priority. But it’s not. Apple re-targeted the mini away from the home/consumer market. And they prioritized CPU performance over adding a GPU.
I think part of their reasoning is that those who require more GPU often need a lot more GPU. So putting a 30-40W GPU in the mini just gets them into a no-man’s land where it’s not good enough to drive increased sales, but it’s hotter, more expensive, larger and/or louder for everyone.
Also, you mention games; gaming on Macs is not that prevalent, but to many of those for whom gaming performance is important, they want lots of GPU. The limited performance available in a MBP or iMac-class GPU isn’t good enough for them (and a lot of gamers don’t like AMD, they want NVIDIA for CUDA support).
So gamers and others who require higher GPU compute are much better served by a 150-250W card in an external TB3 enclosure than by adding a relatively low performance discrete GPU to the logic board. There are probably other factors that went into Apple’s decision matrix in deciding not to include a (modest) discrete GPU in the mini, but I think it just boils down to them deciding it would provide limited benefit to their target market, and come with significant drawbacks. Anyway those are my thoughts.
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