The primary force you were always fighting against was inconsistency between browsers. None of the things you're complaining about are table's fault, though. I

The primary force you were always fighting against was inconsistency between browsers. None of the things you're complaining about are table's fault, though. In the 90s browser vendors didn't target cross-functionality nearly as much as they do now. They could have easily made tables work even better with a modicum of intent instead of plunging us into 2 decades (!!!) of unintelligible nested div hacks that still after all that time weren't up to the task until some arbitrary number of years from today when this feature is actually widespread enough to deploy.