Lists for nav — semantic logic?

[ktinkel]

What is the semantic rationale for using UL/LI for navigation?

Does it enhance the importance of the nav elements in the sensors of the search engine robots if these elements are placed in a list instead of, say, a regular paragraph (P), or several of them?

I wonder about this as I go through once again the steps of distorting LIST to make it do what I want for a navigation bar: disable its markers, remove its decoration so I can use my own border, struggle with margin/padding, etc.

So I wondered if there is a reason. The generally brilliant guy on AListApart says, more or less, that this is a list so it ought to be treated as one. Is there a more substantial reason?