[chris_wot]

So... ignore them? If you want to use a table for tabular data, then please - use a table!

If someone whines you've used a table, then ignore their whining and keep using table markup for tabular data.

[talmand]

Well, ignoring the situation is not a solution to this particular problem.

[chris_wot]

If it gets really bad, just mock them openly. Sure, you might not achieve your objective, but you'll have fun not getting there.