Hello Pablo,
Thank you very much for the help. The penalty of \blank indeed brings the solution closer and it does format the previous example correctly.
However, when I went back to the original document, neither [before={\blank[preference, big]}] nor [after={\blank[samepage, big]}] nor both worked. I trimmed it into the following example which behaves the same:
\starttext
\showframe
\dorecurse{50}{a }
\startsection[title=spec][before={\blank[preference,big]}, after={\blank[samepage,big]}]
\startxtable
\startxrow
\startxcell[ny=30]a\stopxcell\startxcell 1\stopxcell
\stopxrow
\dorecurse{29}{\startxrow\startxcell 2\stopxcell\stopxrow}
\stopxtable
\stoptext
Do you have an idea on how this could also be formatted correctly or how one could inspect and debug the penalty?
Thanks again!
Sylvain