Apple Mail Viewing Font too Small

Like many I have been plagued for years by the ridiculously small size that Apple Mail renders the font size of say Arial 12. I was hoping that all the changes made in Sonoma would resolve this but no. This does not happen in pages or notes so why do they insist on this over rendering in Apple mail? And before anybody suggest changing the font size in setting these are reflected in the email received at the other end, I have tested this with many, many colleagues and customers (over 50 of them, most of whom use Outlook) It is fine when composing a new email, command+ will increase the screen font size without issue BUT it does not work if you are replying an email you have received! What apple could do is add an additional font size option in settings of "Viewing Font" (after all they have "message list font") or is that too simple. Anybody have a working solution for replies?