I was JUST watching an episode last night where Data takes over the Enterprise, so Picard and the others had to conduct all business down in Engineering on that thing. Haha. I was thinking the EXACT same thing.
I never thought about it that way but it looks like they could have. What a way to go, though. During production, the table that thing is attached to was referred to as "the pool table". Sure looks like one.
Wouldn't red tents have been fairly current equipment during the TNG run and a bit pricey to rip up for props? (I could be totally wrong there though).