This might also count as a workaround…I put the “outside” content in the grid with a borderless, insetless cell so that there wasn’t any outside stuff to confuse the row height calculation:
#set page(width: 10cm, height: 10cm)
#grid(
columns: (1fr, 1fr),
rows: (1fr, 1fr),
stroke: black,
inset: 2mm,
grid.cell(colspan: 2, stroke: none, inset: 0pt, [
Blah blah
Blah
Hello]),
"a", "b",
"c", "d"
)
