php – WP CLI Run WP_CLIUtilsformat_items before script finished

How can I run WP_CLIUtilsformat_items before the command has finished? Currently the output will only get returned once the command has finished, kinda like WP_CLI::success('This message will first appear once script has finished') vs WP_CLI::log('This message will appear instantly');

This appears to be a workaround:

ob_start();
WP_CLIUtilsformat_items('table', $users, ('id', 'firstname');
$table = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

WP_CLI::log($output); // will output the table instantly.