I think designers will just have to compensate going forward with the understanding that touch controls should have a bigger hit area than pixel-precision mouse

I think designers will just have to compensate going forward with the understanding that touch controls should have a bigger hit area than pixel-precision mouse controls. We're likely far from figuring how and how long this will play out, but I often make the same mistake as you, hitting the wrong link because they are too small or too close together.