Vs, with my proposal:
[assuming I've set the CCK field 'myfield' to show up in the $my_field variable
in the theoretical UI that will exist for this]

<span class="my_field"><?php print $my_field;?></span>

There's little question about which is easier. One is fairly intuitive and whereas the other is not so much. The 'former way' would *definitely* need a print_r / var_dump to figure out (something beyond what most designers can/want-to grok), whereas the way Earl cited (above) would not require that for all but the_most_clueless_users.

- Caleb