Joseph, that is one of the best posts I have seen on this topic.  I cannot fathom why this topic consistently becomes emotional. 

To everyone: It is only code, people.

I just want to address one thing in reference to your initial reply.  I think the reason why this is still debated and not implemented as much as many would like is mostly due to office politics and new developers signing on daily. 

If in either of my businesses we had the budget to put aside for someone's main job to be (X)HTML and CSS, then I would venture to guess that at least 90% of our work would be done in the "Pure CSS" method.  Being the Lead Architect and developer, I would encourage it.  As it stands now, there simply is not enough time to deal with the office politics, project timelines, browser troubleshooting, and project specs.  Should "Pure CSS" be put into the specs of our projects, we would be able to either (1) extend our project timeline, or (2) hire or devote someone strictly to the (X)HTML/CSS layout design.  Unfortunately, the project specs are not always under my control.  And when you throw in "must have" features that management wants incorporated into an application (yesterday), things like "Pure CSS" oftentimes get pushed to the side.

That wasn't an argument against using "Pure CSS", but rather an insight into why I cannot always think about it, much less incorporate it.

Now back to the new developers signing on daily.  No matter which side of the argument begins flaming or posting offensive comments.  Such activity will likely turn off many people that you would otherwise want to know and subscribe to your line of thought.  But now I have delved into online forum politics...  ;)  Enough of that!

Thank you so much for your links and insight, Joseph.  Although I have been to most of those resources, I am right now in the middle of studying the "Sliding Doors" method of tab menus. Which is VERY cool.