Yes—most of the miniature illusion comes from using tilt to place the plane of focus at an unusual angle, so only a narrow band of the scene looks sharp while both nearer and farther areas blur.

That blur pattern is a strong visual cue we normally associate with close-up, high-magnification photography. Real miniatures are usually photographed from close range, which naturally gives shallow depth of field, so our brains learn to connect “thin strip of focus + blur in front and behind” with “small object.”

In a normal photo of a large scene focused far away, depth of field is often deep enough that you wouldn’t expect strong blur in both foreground and background. Tilting the lens changes the orientation of the focus plane relative to the sensor and scene, making that selective-focus look possible across a real landscape or city view.

So it’s not that tilt inherently makes depth of field smaller everywhere; it changes where the sharp zone lies. Used from an elevated viewpoint, that selective sharp band mimics the look of a photographed model, which is why the scene appears miniature.