Comment 3 for bug 1637536

OK, there's a design discussion to be had here.

In these cases, mirout is correct - your display has exactly one mode it can be driven at. X adds a whole bunch of fake “standard” modes, but they're just that - fake. Selecting one of the fake modes does not change the video mode; instead, it scales the rendering up to the monitor's mode.

What is the user requirement here?

I'd prefer the Mir API to accurately reflect the capabilities of the system, but one of those capabilities is that we can scale content. If the user-requirement is “I'd like everything on my screen to look bigger”, we can do that.

Indeed, this seems to be the Apple approach - https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT202471 - there's the “optimal resolution” button, and then the “make everything larger or smaller” option.