Tim:
I tend to agree regarding things like resolution. Screen dimensions and resolutions are fixed entities, and should be set to exactly match the hardware involved.
lee:
Many people still don't see it that way. And in a way, they are right: Nobody prevents you to use 800x600 on a display which is capable of 1920*1200.
However, modern displays only work well at one resolution, their native resolution. Exact halves can work, but odd divisions do not work well. Some of them are bloody awful.
So simply playing with screen is X by Y pixels to set things up is really inadequate.
When you consider screen resolutions as fixed entities, what other choice do you have but to set up the resolutions of your displays as X by Y pixels?
None, to be pedantic. But people bodge the resolution to solve other problems:
The size of the fonts The size of the icons The size of graphics
Which really ought to be controlled, directly, and individually.