I believe pin tables games and "table" terminology has been around since about the 1750's, more so in Western Europe.
My guess is that the term Pinball Machines became more widely used in USA in the mid/late 1940's after WWII as the games took on more varied and complex parts and mechanisms, playfield components, flippers, etc.
Virtual pinball did give new life to the word tables.

These two statements seem to oppose each other.

From reading your reply post pinballrockstar, and re-reading my earlier post, I guess I could have added more detail to clarify better what I was trying to say, but I was trying not to type lengthy paragraphs.

The OP's title for this topic is “Why do some people call it a "Table"?” So I assume we are all in agreement that calling it a pinball machine is what most everyone calls them all over the world both today and for at least several decades, and that *some* people call them a table sometimes, but not as much as in years past. I was sort of commenting as to when the different terminology came to being used.

The word(s) "machine/machines" shows up in various industry documents in the 1950's, and sometimes even back in the 30's and 40's.
Some examples being: Amusement Pinball Machines, Amusement Machines, Coin Machines, Machine.

I did see a couple Gottlieb flyers calling their products a "Pin Game" (1947 Humpty Dumpty, & 1950 Bank-a-Ball).
Gottlieb started using the phrase "Flipper Skill Game" back in the 1960's.

Gottlieb was using "Table" and "Pin Table" at least occasionally in mid 30's from what I noticed.

Often times over the decades the manufacturers just called them "Games" or "Novelty Games".

Here in the South and Midwest (in USA), almost everyone I ever talk to calls them pinball machines, from mid-70's to present day.
I rarely hear someone calling them a table.
Exception is when you hear The Who's Pinball Wizard song being played on the radio.

Agreed.

Here's a link showing a pin table game dating back to 1750's to 1770's era. Have to scroll down a bit once at that website.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball