Not sure what is meant by XHTML is dead, but I think the use of definition Lists for the Form is quite clever you can do so much with them and CSS.
To see an excelent site on the subject take a look at
Max Design - Definition lists - misused or misunderstood?
I have only just started pluging with ZF seriously, I took a quick look with earler versions and thought I doesnt do it but with the View extensions and being able to stack loads of action controllers it does does the stuff.
I still need to go back and studfy this thread I'm sure I can get more out of it.
http://www.zfforums.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
Nic