What follows is a longer format for the question above, and the unexpected finding that inserting a Quantity value in each row encourages Dataset to display the nested header correctly.
Why does inserting a Quantity change the Dataset format?
I don’t think this is specific to Quantity. Just using raw numbers triggers the same behavior. I suspect that it’s just using some basic heuristics, like display strings as rows and display numbers as columns.
What optional argument to Dataset avoids my having to insert Quantity values?
I don’t know. Nothing obvious stands out to me. It might not be controllable. While Dataset does have some nice presentation features, I don’t generally use Dataset as a presentation mechanism per se. I think it’s primarily intended to support querying.