Basic sensors effectively have one analogue to digital convertor (ADC) per column of pixels. That would mean that if you wanted to reduce the horizontal resolution, you would be disabling some ADC's, which in turn would reduce how many pixels can be converted per second, giving you no benefit.
Would it be possible to buy a second camera and wire up its ADCs to the sensors on the first camera and then read the next set of vertical pixels? Effectively doubling the vertical resolution?
Basic sensors effectively have one analogue to digital convertor (ADC) per column of pixels. That would mean that if you wanted to reduce the horizontal resolution, you would be disabling some ADC's, which in turn would reduce how many pixels can be converted per second, giving you no benefit.