If we're just displaying tables rather than interacting with them, that problem is solved.

    +----------------------------------+---------+------------------------+
    |               Col1               |  Col2   |          Col3          |
    +----------------------------------+---------+------------------------+
    | Value 1                          | Value 2 | 123                    |
    | Separate                         | cols    | with a tab or 4 spaces |
    | This is a row with only one cell |         |                        |
    +----------------------------------+---------+------------------------+

This can't be reflowed to larger or smaller screen sizes.

It also doesn't necessarily work well for non-European languages.

That only works if you can guarantee monospaced font rendering on the client.

It also looks ugly.

You cannot guarantee squat. Which is pretty much the gist of TFA, within a single vendor's various client interfaces to its own unified email system.

However, as I put on my True Scotsman hat and kilt, any true email client will present monospaced fonts, therefor those which fail to do so aren't real email tools.

In the old days instant messenger didn't work if the other party was offline, it didn't usually support more than 1 recipient, and it was just stuck in proprietary programs as it is these days. SMS is too short.

> You've never received data that needed to be displayed as a table?

Actually not that often. If the formatting is critical to the email, don't write it in an email. Send me a PDF.

Data that couldn't be in an attached spreadsheet? Never.