GfxTextureManager.cpp: validateTextureQuality bug or not

Today, I go through the gfxTextureManager.cpp validateTextureQuality source code, I notice the following code:

bool GFXTextureManager::validateTextureQuality(GFXTextureProfile *profile, U32 &width, U32 &height)
{
U32 scaleFactor;
if((scaleFactor = getBitmapScalePower(profile)) == 0)
return true;

// Otherwise apply the appropriate scale...
width <<= scaleFactor;
height <<= scaleFactor;

return true;

}

according the torque document, scaleFactor is the factor decreasing the texture size, but why increasing the texture size here? I have add a breakpoint here but not hit in my mod application. I am not very sure it is a bug or not. Thank you very much:)