I think the biggest reason that people say you should eat together is so that your lo see's eating as a social, family thing, other than a struggle.
Honestly, we have eaten as a whole family only a few times in ds life.
He eats hours before we do - it's just not possible in my house, where there are 2 working people, to get home and make dinner in a timeframe that would be acceptable in making ds wait to eat.
He eats first, then we play while cooking our dinner, then we eat.
We all still sit at the table together, dh and I just don't eat.
He seems to be doing very well that way, never had any problems (other than ONLY eating Chicken nuggets and green beans for weeks on end! :shock: ) but that's a pretty typical toddler thing.
Would I prefer we all ate together? Absolutely. But right now this is working for us!
HTH!