Rich, is it possible that you are not realizing the value of the tables even to yourself. I have read many of your posts and you seem to have a good understanding of dive physiology. I wonder if you are under estimating how tables helped you to obtain that knowledge.
I likewise rely on my computer very heavily but my understanding of the tables allows me to understand why my computer is telling me what it is telling me and certainly should I get a value that doesn't seem right it is my understanding of tables that allows me to identify that error and work around it.
As a physician I use very little information that I learned in my first 2 years at the medical school however had I not had that basis I would not be in the position to understand the things I currently use today.
Been mulling this over with an eye toward making it relevant also to the OP. My thoughts on tables in this context:
1.) Tables don't teach decompression illness. They are a device to figure out NDL for dives, all of which are treated as square profile dives (which many wreck dives and some tech. dives are, but most 'multi-level' reef dives are not). Tables do give you a columnar table plotting dive depth against time so you can find an NDL, and see how quickly your NDL drops as you dive deeper &/or longer. Good to quickly gauge how long you might have on a known dive plan (e.g.: 130' on the
Oriskany, or 120' on a sand tiger shark populated wreck off North Carolina), without having to know how to enter a plan into a computer.
2.) Tables also provide 'Pressure Groups.' With your NDL you get a pressure group, identified by a letter, that you can plot against your surface interval to factor residual nitrogen from dive 1 into figuring out your NDL for dive 2.
3.) My knowledge of human physiology is rooted in past science courses, plus some of what I was taught in the PADI Rescue Diver Course, and on this forum. From this forum, I was informed that nitrogen narcosis can symptomatically impact some sensitive people surprisingly shallow (e.g.: 70 feet per one report, I think), that different body compartments load & expel nitrogen at different rates, that nitrogen bubbles can form in the spinal cord & put you in a wheel chair, etc... I am told that Mark Powell's
Deco for Divers is, I think, THE reference for decompression for recreational divers (per a post stating so by TS&M). I haven't read it as yet.
3.) The main lesson tables showed me was the idea of how depth limited time, about how sharply, and how this carried over to repetitive dives. Which can be valuable, depending on what kind of diving you do. But real world experience doing mainly shore dives in Bonaire, and Caribbean boat dives and local Kentucky quarry dives, has shown me on an AL80, I don't get real close to NDLs as I'm gas-limited. I usually dive nitrox in Bonaire, which offers longer NDLs, but on a Deep Diver course to 130', reviewing the computer info. after download later, I was surprised at how I didn't push NDL much on that dive (with air, due to depth).
4.) Basically, what I'm saying is that most vacation divers doing 2 tank boat dives up to an hour apiece aren't likely to hit an NDL. People with excellent SAC rates/low consumption, or diving deep with unusually large tanks (like the 120 cf steels with Living Underwater in Cozumel, or charter boats to deep wrecks), or on a heavy dive schedule (e.g.: 4 - 5 per day) shore diving Bonaire or on a Live-aboard (particularly if not using nitrox), on the other hand, could.
5.) From what I've learned here, Technical diving is a different animal - dives are more precisely planned with less lee-way to make an unplanned 20 foot drop to look at that octopus, etc... A number of tech. divers don't use air-integration (some seem a bit hostile to it) and run their computers in gauge mode, basically the opposite of 'follow the leader' with a computer spoon feeding you NDLs. Tech. diving also tends to be substantially more expensive than regular rec. diving, and I think most rec. divers never get into tech. So I don't think the possibility of tech. diving in a few years should determine choices now (unless you want to get into a back-plate/wing setup?).
Thing is, when I did my PADI OW course academic portion (late '05), I got the AIR RDP (table) and a booklet that taught us how to use the table. Anyone who wants to learn how to dive tables doesn't require a course or an instructor to learn.
Though I don't calculate dive times with my tables, I have them for air & EAN 32 & EAN 36, and plan to hold onto them.
Richard.
