Text size on ipad vs iphone

I'm a long time iphone user (SE 2020 currently) and new ipad user (8th gen). Here's something I seem to be unable to fix (or even understand why it is this way).

On the ipad, default text size in websites in Safari is TINY. Text is smaller than on my iphone! On both devices, the Text Size setting is at default and no other settings have been made to affect text size or scaling. The ipad screen is physically ~4x larger than my iphone, and yet text displays smaller than on my iphone. And no it doesn't just appear smaller because the screen is bigger. It is absolutely smaller. And Im comparing with common websites like YouTube and google.com. Apples to apples.

Seems to be only with Safari. In Settings and the default email app, text looks appropriately sized.

Is there some secondary text size or Safari setting on the ipad that I'm overlooking?

Thanks!