VESA number varies from GFX card to GFX card, one number may not correspond to same resolution on some other card...

I did mess around with the settings long ago but found 1024 x 768 @ 256 colors to be highest setting that worked...

Using "highest" settings may not always work for everyone. On occasions, I had to switch to Safe Mode only to lower display resolution because in Normal mode it was too high for my monitor(s) which instantly dropped to protected mode. Some people may still have old/defective monitors that cannot work at 1024x768 or higher, or they may just need lower resolution, higher DPI or other settings for some other reasons.

Therefore, ideally, at boot time there would be a short test to enumerate available VESA modes, then a test on the currently connected monitor for matched modes and then let the user choose the one they want (or just set the highest available one but allow the user to change it dynamically). This might be a little hard for me to do, as I forgot all the ASM I've worked with when messing with the old WLL.COM. But we'll see...