I agree that spreadsheet use in engineering is one of the most complicated use cases, but I submit for your consideration another very complicated use case: laboratory software ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_information_management_system ) LIMS do what Excel can but with the added benefits of being more controlled, secure, user friendly and faster because they're built upon the back of a modern database. In my experience with engineer built worksheets, the engineer that built them is typically the only one who knows how to use them. This is job security for that engineer, but isn't scaleable for others' use. In the lab software, a scientist builds the methods, and lab technicians use those methods over and over again daily. Each step of each use of the method is recorded with the inputs, the results, who performed it and exactly when. The workflows are built-in and the calculations are comparable to those used in engineering.
If an Excel sheet is that big, it should be replaced with a proper database, which most likely would run on Linux. I think you're right, though, about the lack of planning around the practicalities.
Used to be to get to California, ya had to hitch up yer covered wagon and cross the wild western plains fer months. Now ya gotcha ya Tes-las and yer Aer-o-planes.
Alternately: I remember when everyone on a flight could smoke. The cabin filled with a blueish unbreathable haze. Nobody had personal electronics, and in-flight entertainment was rare, so every child on the plane was continuously crying, whining, or yelling.
Their stated goal is to stop sex tourists. Releasing the names of the ones they find seems an efficient way to do so.