The Table Trick continued..
It turns out that the Table Trick isn't quite solved just yet.
I noticed today that if the main content area has more content than can fit inside the right-aligned table, it goes under the left column rather than what you'd expect which is to push it over.
Which is not good, at least in our default CMS Master Pages. I need something that is 100% reliable so that it doesn't bother our customers.
For now, I'm back to plain jane table columns, and have to accept the fact that the search engines will see the left column text first, just as you do. 