I loved this episode, Klaatu. Somehow I find it really entertaining to hear all about the benefits and difficulties of tables and it's something I've dealt with a good bit myself, but mostly in the context of eBook editing. In addition to the problems you mention, another one I find vexing is the impact of font sizes on tables. One of the best accessibility features of ebook formats and ebook readers is the user's option to change font size. When you're getting older like me and you typically increase the  font sizes, you find that tables rarely survive the change unless you're on a big screen like a tablet. I will try almost any option to avoid making a table in one of my own ebook edits because it's too hard to predict screen size and font preferences. Lists will usually do the trick, just as you proposed in your episode. Now I wanna go take a look at your ebook...