I don’t like the idea of it needing to be patched in.

At launch advanced graphics mode settings could be something that is disabled by default but unlockable (via config.ini setting, console command, cheat code, whatever). Really the implementation isn’t what’s important, just that it is opt-in and the user knows that are leaving the normal settings and entering something that may not work as expected.

Then if they are still supporting the game later the defaults can be changed with a patch but if the devs don’t have that opportunity the community can still document this behaviour on sites like www.pcgamingwiki.com.