Note that CSS does not say that disply:table is only for tabluar data. The whole point of CSS is that you can use it any way you like, since it doesn't change the semantics of the document. This is totally different from HTML which indeed states that HTML tables should only be used for tabular data.
CSS has not "conceded" anything by including display:table - rather this is the whole point of CSS: to allow you to use grid-like layouts for other things than just tabular data.
I agree with you... except it is not a myth. There are tons of people walking around and spouting off who have come to believe that "Tables are evil!"
People with considered opinions like you are not in the majority of those speaking.
"Note that CSS does not say that disply:table is only for tabluar data."
It says "Table layout can be used to represent tabular relationships between data." Direct quote, and skimming that page, it's the only normative comment about what it is for. I again agree that CSS doesn't forbid the use in layout, but there definitely are people thinking tabular layouts are forbidden and that only the "IE subset" (again, my best guess at what incoherent thing these people are arguing for) is "pure".
You basically re-iterated my point, but I assure you that you are wrong about what other people think. Go check out the parallel /r/programming post.
Anyway, I agree we are in agreement, except I don't think the quote from CSS2 you mention is normative. (It says can be used, not must be used or should be used) It is just an example. There is nothing normative in CSS about when to use the different styles.
The CSS standard has already conceded the point that tables can do things that pre-table CSS couldn't do. It's over. The pro-CSS side, at least in the way it is being argued (as if the IE subset is CSS, rather than the standard), is just wrong and totally out of date. They've been abandoned by CSS itself. Quite a long time ago, actually.
As for their assertions that this is for "tabular relationships between data" in the standard, who cares? Table support is implemented as certain boxes with certain behaviors. If you need those behaviors in your layout, use them. They are well defined. And since content and presentation are so darned separate, it's not like it actually hurts anything, right?
(That's a critical point. If you move all the table stuff into CSS, that's fundamentally different than using the standard table tag. That's presentation in CSS and content in HTML, exactly as it "should" be!)
Getting all huffy about the fact that somebody declared that some behavior should "only be for tables" is really missing the point. The behavior simply exists, regardless of what it was "designed" for, and if you need it, use it. Besides, just read about the table support... if you can't see how that stuff might be useful in a layout, I can't imagine how your mind works.
The CSS table support is actually pretty rich, better than the conventional table tag by a lot, or at least, more flexible.