[jraph]

> one is a table the other pretends to be a table

How about "one pretends to be a layout, and the other is a layout"?

I don't understand well what you are saying, but:

> a practical example: i look at each row and set rowspan for duplicate values. a series of rows might have week 22 as their first cell and multiple with monday as their second.

This seems to be a case of using a table as a table, which is fine. You should use tables when you are trying to represent tabular data.

[throwaway14356]

i see what you mean. I couldn't imagine using fake tables for layout.

you use grid flex or even float (if you need L or Z shaped cells)