Why can't we use `table` markup in answers?

Question

This question has been asked before and marked a duplicate of this one.

Alas, that question's answers merely point out that we can't use tables in answers.

Is there a reason why this is a feature that's never been implemented (as you can see there are a lot of questions on this topic in Meta).

I see a few strong arguments for considering it:

• it's useful. Today I wanted to format a building code load table as a (obviously!) table! But then learned that's not something we can do with markdown or the allowed HTML tags.
• we can use pre which works. Sort of. The problems with this, though, are that a) we lose all the important accessibility features that proper table markup provides. b) pre text on mobile is kind of a pain.

Maybe there's a good reason why this isn't a feature offered. Maybe it's a bad reason. Either way, I was just curious as to whether or not there was a reason and what that might be.

Answer 1

Actually yes, it does explain why, mostly by linking to this.

To paraphrase the paraphrasing there, it's just that it would mess up a ton of stuff on the page, layout-wise. Imagine a table that was wider than the allowable input (since tables allow you to force width relatively easily). The best alternative would be to throw everything in an iframe, but that wouldn't make for a very nice UI in every other case.