What specific apps will benefit from the resolution you suggest?
Do you mean games? Movies? High-end photo editing?I have an older 17’’ ZBook, refurb, about $200 that suits my needs for audio editing just fine.
It’s important to understand how the laptop will be used to appreciate your point.
Literally everything. I’m not a resolution snob – I still use 1080p for most of the devices in my house – but lower resolutions are fuzzier, more pixelated, and harder to read. If you want to have a larger interface, you can scale the interface size in any modern OS, and still have the benefits of a clearer, crisper, easier-to-read screen.
Moreover, a lot of programs (at least in Windows and Linux) have windows that, for better or for worse, can’t be resized below a certain minimum threshold. This can manifest in apps that have interface elements that are permanently hidden below the bottom edge of the screen or the taskbar. Having used some of those boutique mini-pcs that I referenced, it’s not that uncommon of a problem. Being limited to 768 vertical pixels means that you only have 71% of the potential vertical space of a 1080p display.
The only upside to using a lower resolution is that it’s less taxing on the computer’s hardware, but even a potato PC can push 1080p these days. If you’re trying to game on a low-end PC, having a lower resolution will likely mean that you can game at the display’s native resolution with a few more FPS, but that’s legitimately the only use case I can think of that would have a tangible benefit. It’s an extraordinarily niche position to be in. Even considering audio editing – not my strongest suit, but I do make music and make a lot of use of Audacity for mixing – if you’re doing any multi-track work where the tracks are stacked vertically (e.g. Audacity) you’re able to get more tracks in the window at the same time, so if you’re trying to line up events based on waveform it’s easier to visualize.
tl;dr – there’s no real upside to a lower-resolution display beyond (1) gaming on a low-end PC at native resolution or (2) using very old/very low-end hardware and not taxing it more than necessary.