That's the first time I hear that. I always understood minification and minimization as synonyms. What would minimizing code mean for you?

My parse of "minimizing code" is that it's an approach to writing code, with the goal of writing less code. I would expect it to include things like terse idioms, DRY, preferring data over code, preferring configuration over code, preferring libraries over rolling your own, managing scope, etc. All things about writing different code, which solves the problem but is not always semantically equivalent.

By contrast, minification is mechanical semantic-preserving syntax transformations done to a completed program after it written.

I hear you. I always applied the term "minimalism/minimal code" for that style of programming, which I'm a follower of myself (except the lib/diy route, which tends to be more minimal if you diy).