I know whay you mean Rob, but looking at the specs I think the `overhang` is structural as opposed to just asthetic. If the table were creepable (don`t know if it is) that`d give more time to load a chair, assuming the software can pace the LIMs correctly and not just go from ride speed to platform speed and vice versa.
I think any addition of a "creep mode" to the TTA loading platform would require them working on a lot more track and LIMs than just the station, probably stretching all the way back down the Buzz/MILF building.
As the system operates now, each LIM is always running at its set "frequency" (simplifying terms here). Along the pieces of track where the speed is constant, the LIMs are spaced evenly apart, and run at a rate that will keep a moving train moving at the same speed it's currently going. Wherever a train needs to speed up or slow down, the LIMs are much closer together, running at whatever speed the new speed is supposed to be. This is most noticable as you leave the station and in the first tunnel where the Epcot model is. The extra LIMs help to quickly speed up a slow-moving train to the frequency they're operating at, and a bunch of LIMs operating at a slow frequency will slow down a relatively fast moving train.
The system works well even though it doesn't operate on a block system like a train or a coaster because the trains are spaced out enough so that even though one train slows down at a set point, the train behind it is far enough back that the front train is out of the "slowdown" section of track before the next faster-moving train enters it.
But, the stretch of track along the MILF/Buzz building is built to be a constant-speed stretch of track. The trains don't slow down until they're going through the final curve to the station. If they were to implement a creep-mode, they would need to work on the track, adding extra LIMs so that they could change the location of the "slow-down" section of track. Thus when the station goes into creep mode, the trains are slowed down much sooner than they are now. It would require the addition of extra LIMs that would most likely sit there swithced off until required. And then when it's required, they turn on at the slower frequency, and the already-existing LIMs turn down to a slower rate.
In a side note, it's interesting to note that the LIMs in the station don't actually all operate at the same rate. The LIMs in the unload side of the platform actually run slightly faster than the load side. Then, if a gap develops between trains (which can happen sometimes if there has been a system-wide stop or if the system is running one less train than full capacity), the train behind the gap travels through the station slowly catching up to the one in front of it. But because of the mass in front of it and the slightly-slower moving LIMs on the load side, once it catches up it doesn't have the "oomph" to push trains forward any faster than they're already moving. This assures that by the time the trains get around to Load, it's back to one continuous string of cars without the gap. It's quite the ingenious system...
(The one thing I'm unsure of on the TTA is just what the LIMs do during an E-stop... What kind of field do they output to get all the trains to stop? And how about to get going again? I know it's not uncommon for a train on the TTA to roll backwards slightly while it "aligns" with the LIMs in the track before coming to a stop)
-Rob
