Even the simplest details are different, like e.g. in Wordle you know which letters are in the right or wrong places but in Mastermind you only know some are but not which.

¹ And because this is HN, I have to point out that that is just a personal preference, it does not in any way reflect on you, the reader. You are free to enjoy or dislike whatever you want.

Some of these refinements are much more important than most new ideas.

And making a gerrymandering game is a relatively obvious idea that I’m sure hundreds of people have had independently.

Mastermind has equiprobability of colors and configurations.

Wordle has etaoin shrdlcu. There is some structure close to interleaved vowels and consonants. Also an arbitrary list of real words.