*Why is it that the second query does not qualify for minimal logging?*

Minimal logging is *available* for the second query, but the engine chooses not to use it at runtime.

There is a minimum threshold for `INSERT...SELECT` below which it chooses not to use the bulk load optimizations. There is a cost involved in setting up a bulk rowset operation, and bulk-inserting only a few rows would not result in efficient space utilization.

*What can be done to improve the situation?*

Use one of the many other methods (e.g. `SELECT INTO`) that does not have this threshold. Alternatively, you might be able to rewrite the source query in some way to boost the estimated number of rows/pages over the threshold for `INSERT...SELECT`.

See also [Geoff's self-answer][1] for more useful information.

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*Possibly interesting trivia:* `SET STATISTICS IO` reports logical reads for the target table [only when bulk loading optimizations are not used][2].


  [1]: http://dba.stackexchange.com/a/117089/1192
  [2]: http://stackoverflow.com/a/30656174/440595