As an absolute beginner of typst the wording of the option to choose the size of the columns:

auto may be specified to automatically resize the column based on the space available

confused me, as I expected the columns to take up all horizontal space available (the full page width, for instance) while it actually accommodates the space requirements of the cell contents.

This is not a big issue, and the confusion was quickly cleared up by some help on Discord and reading the documentation on the grid reference.

See also: https://discord.com/channels/1054443721975922748/1143325450161094787/1143325450161094787