HTML tables validate fine with XHTML 1.1.
Just try validating and you will see. Besides, as you know, one is supposed to apply proper *structural* mark-ups. Using TABLE to achieve a particular layout for FORM elements is not correct, from standards point.
In fact, even in 4.0 FORM cannot contain a TABLE. You can have a FORM fully inside a TD/TH, but not a TABLE inside a FORM (just try http://validator.w3.org/).
Granted, ther is a certain amount of "unlearning" one needs to go through, but it is not really any more difficult:
http://alistapart.com/stories/practicalcss/
My DIV'ed standard.adp is only 70 lines, while default one is about 100, standard-lars.adp is even larger at 143 lines. While smaller, it is not any more cryptic:
