Fundamental question about XML and tables

Hi,

I have a general fundamental question about XML and tables.

Why should XML already concretely map tables in its structure XML markup data? I think "tables" already represent a kind of formatting. Normally one does not want any format-related markup data in XML. Is this not a contradiction to the basic idea of XML? Is this a compromise, so that there are no complex r/w rules required and it will be technically easier?

Thanks for your reply.

Apollo102