Unable to lower FULLSCREEN resolution in pygame on PI Zero W

Question

I am running Raspbian (buster) at a desktop resolution of ie: 1920x1080 on a Raspberry PI Zero W but wish to create a python game using pygame that runs FULLSCREEN at a lower resolution. I am unable to change to a lower FULLSCREEN resolution and list_modes only returns a single mode (the current screen resolution).

1. When I list the available modes with pygame.display.list_modes() ---pygame returns ONLY the current screen resolution ie: 1920x1080
2. I have the same behavior on raspbian stretch and the newer buster version
3. I have the same behavior when running the OS at any other resolution ie: 1024x768 and then 1024x768 is the only mode returned.
4. This behavior is NOT seen on a windows pc nor on a PI4 Model B

Python3 immediate mode:

>>> import pygame
pygame 1.9.6
Hello from the pygame community. https://www.pygame.org/contribute.html
>>> pygame.init()
(6, 0)
>>> pygame.display.list_modes()
[(1920, 1080)]

pygame.display.list_modes() should return multiple modes but only returns the current resolution

pygame.display.set_mode((800,600), pygame.FULLSCREEN) switches to FULLSCREEN but the screen resolution is unchanged at 1920x1080. No errors are raised.

Given the correct behavior running on a PC and a PI4 this issue MAY be limited to the Zero W board?? --Rich