We didn't want tables.
We wanted layout.

The workaround was evidence of an unmet need.

We didn't use tables because we loved tables. We used them because we wanted layout, and the web didn't have layout. The tortured HTML markup we saw before was not just technical debt, it was telling us something: developers wanted control over layout. It was evidence of an unmet need. Next is another example of a thing we did to work around the lack of native support for a pattern that emerged in the early 2000s.

We didn't want tables.We wanted layout.

We didn't want tables.
We wanted layout.