However, I think having the ability to take the stage and speak to all participants can help to reduce that, by requesting people to try to mix it up a bit, sit with someone new.

Also, I think the dynamics would be different based on who gets to name the tables. If just the host of the room, then maybe more control. If table hosts can name their table, maybe it has a higher likelihood of people sticking with people like them.

Even if it does lead to tribal grouping, sometimes that's not a bad thing. For example, if I'm running a session where I want people to reflect deeply about some topic, sometimes it's nice to have the built-in trust that comes from being of the same group.

I could talk about this stuff for days :-)