You can still have simpler table syntax that's nice to read but easier to maintain. For my own markup language (http://breuleux.net/quaint_demo/) I implemented this syntax:

    + Name    + Occupation
    | Alice   | Accountant
    | Bob     | Baker
    | Charles | Car salesman

Headers are easier to make and the last column does not require a trailing marker. It's still some work to align columns other than the last, but that's not a requirement and I'd still much rather have a non-aligned ASCII table than nothing at all.