Tables of Values vs. Functions

I was just thinking about some of the trouble w/ balancing E:FE, and computer games in general.  With traditional board games, tables of various values are provided.  Tables permit easy modeling of non-continuous relationships, which permits more robust balance-ability.  Modeling game quantities directly on well-behaved, continuous functions would tend to produce well-behaved, regularly scaling (be it linear or exponential) effects.  Sure, more exotic functions or piece-wise functions could be employed, but why practice so much math?

Just a thought.