That is not really how it works. Yes, a camera has a fixed array of dots and to extract the maximum amount of information from that sensor, you have to maximize the number of pixels covered by your image.
A scanner essentially just moves a single pixel over the source material. The resolution is limited not by how much of the flatbed you cover, but by how small that single pixel is and how precisely it can be moved. (And even the size of the sensor is fungible, if you can move it precisely you can oversample.)
Scanners have their downsides, no doubt, but raw resolution is their upside. The downside is the time it takes for a scanner to make an image -- that is why we carry around ultra-expensive silicon wafers for photography, and not a single light-sensitive element that moves around under the lens's image circle.