I'm aware that they are the same intervals; perhaps my brain is destroyed by my music theory classes, but I really think of a minor scale as a different beast from a major scale starting on the submediant. [1] indicates that other movable do systems may use "la" based minors, and that it is "sometimes preferred in choral music, especially with children," so I suspect this distinction is something I learned.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge#Minor