I agree with you that the first table would be better as something other than a table. It’s not really a table anyway – there is no relationship between columns OR rows.  You could do this as you suggested (subheading with paragraphs) or you could do it as a list.  Since the “headings” are fully capitalized, a 1-3 list would be fine – the capitalization is enough distinction.  Or you could do 1-5, 3-5 with the “heading” in 1 and the “definition” in 3.  Any of these would work – just be consistent.

Cindi