I think the bigger point of the minis game is that you can just have stupid-fun battles in the vein of "Could Superman beat up Batman?"
Right now I've got a black dragon and Strahd von Zarovich. There's absolutely no reason for him to team up with an Alhoon and a pack of zombies to take out the black dragon. At all. But it can happen because it's fun.
Or can 30 kobolds take out a beholder? Can a big Bullette kill two little Bullettes? These are important questions! And you can play out the entire scenario with graph paper, dimes, and thumbtacks if you're so inclined - since the rules and all the stat cards are free downloads. (Or going to be, after they finish the updates.)
As a dumbed-down quick-fix, I think it approximates 3.5 the same way that Mechwarrior clix approximated Battletech. It kind-of feels the same, and would look the same from a distance. The minutiae may vary, but the end result is astonishingly similar.