It is a good habit to total these up for each page of the website. Sadly, this is true. And as a designer myself, I find it difficult to justify spending the time it takes to build a framed website, then provide backward compatibility for older browsers that cannot use frames. This is probably the best reason why to use tables instead of frames. Yet, there are times when you can, and possibly should use frames.
Tables are wonderful devices but they do have practical limits.
For instance, it is a little cumbersome to include a large selection table on every page you design, where a frame displays the menu once and forever. Maintaining such a website would be frustrating at best. And where a frame can be designed to stay in place, always displaying an array of options, a table always scrolls with the page. A small point, perhaps, but if you are designing for effect, the frame provides an obvious advantage, especially for websites with lots of pages and content. The best answer to this problem is in the planning of your website.