"CSS could have used a table-like layout model that makes it easy to arrange <div>s into rows and columns, allowing a smooth upgrade from people who were using the <table> tag."
Like this? http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/tables.html
Like this? http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/tables.html
Despite being first defined in CSS2 (1998) CSS tables were not supported in IE for 10 years (IE8, 2009), and while some of the blame for this is surely Microsoft's, with a standard as big and complex as CSS it's hard to expect implementations to get it right for a long time.
To avoid this disaster CSS3 is "modular" and currently has over 40 modules defined! This is madness. The more complicated things get, the more difficult it is to bring the web to new devices or to innovate in the browser space.
OTOH, it was the early adopters that were driving it, and I dont really have a problem with that. That is what early adopters do.