I'm facing the same issue...
I've set it to "Localize terms. Terms are common for all languages, but their name and description may be localized.", as my idea was just translate the term names. The same nodes should be related to the terms, and the same node is visible on every language (not translated nodes).
I tried the translation table, and it doesn't work as expected. Catalog disapears, but terms shown in the "in XX, XX" section are translated.

I'll give it a try, but what I needed was just that (exactly this "Terms are common for all languages, but their name and description may be localized").
I'll keep posting for future reference.