I know the pain you feel. I’m in the middle of migrating a complex Sheet to Coda for a client. Since the sheet is a big cross-table with values and aggregation on both axes and is oriented vertically (pivoted so to say), it f-cks with my brain big time.
That said, I still managed to map it onto a Coda flat table, and I actually love how logical and structured everything became.
IMO it is much better to put effort but have a strict structure rather than have a freeform cell grid that’s much more prone to messing things up.
Cannot share the doc I’m working on, but here’s an exploration demo for a part of it (cohort analysis):
P.S. That said, I’d really love for Coda to have a pivoted view, where columns are oriented horizontally (e.g. to display different calculated metrics over years, where the years are left to right). Ideally columns could behave like groups and be either on the top or left.