There is a lot of hype about web standards and lot of speculation regarding legal obligations. Some designers are over-zealous with web standards and can be a bit high-and-mighty. I'm sure they are well-meaning but perhaps a little mis-guided.
Web standards do a lot of good. They help browser vendors to make products which are compatible with one-another.
It is important that the web standards are understood - but I think they should only be used only as a guide or an ideal.
Fact is the big players like google/ microsoft/ ebay/ amazon etc aren't complying with web standards. And this is with good reason.
One of the major problems is that non-compliant browsers which don't implement standards correctly still need to be supported, the most notorious example being IE 6.
Because of this, using strict standards hamper or at worst limit what you can do. Creativity should never be stifled by voluntary bureacracy.
I'm all for clean code and structured layout but when you have to create several nested divs to achieve what could be done with 1 table I think