This gif does a good job of showing how taking out the clutter can be much more attractive.
http://i.imgur.com/ZY8dKpA.gif
Very very good point! Thanks!
What I love about that is that at first it gets less comprehensible, then more (IMO).
Essentially, the color and borders become necessary because the basic presentation is a mess. So when you first get rid of the color and borders, it's incomprehensible. Then as they clean it up, it starts to really take form and becomes so much more readable than the original. I think that will permanently change how I think about doing tables.