Do you also spell out the implicit <tbody> in all your tables for clarity?

I do.

`<thead>` and `<tfoot>`, too, if they're needed. I try to use all the free stuff that HTML gives you without needing to reach for JS. It's a surprising amount. Coupled with CSS and you can get pretty far without needing anything. Even just having `<template>` with minimal JS enables a ton of 'interactivity'.

Yes. Explicit is almost always better than implicit, in my experience.

Sometimes... especially if a single record displays across more than a single row.

I almost always use thead.