The current standard still is 2^10 (1024) Columns, 2^20 (1048576) rows each. This results in 2^30 (1073741824) logical (addressable) cells. The currently (7.0.0) experimental enhancement is 2^14 columns of 2^24 rows each, and thus 2^38 (about 2.7E11) cells. Of course, such a huge number of cells isn’t actually “created”. Even if the “creation” of a cell would only need 1 µs (mikrosecond = 1E-6 s) the process would eat about 76 h (>3 days) otherwise, and no ordinary man’s RAM could keep all these cells.
We are talking about views.
Created in a more substantial sense are cells if you insert something in or assign something to - or if you access one by user code explicitly.
The view of a sheet is created with much smaller numbers of columns and rows - depending on the zoom-factor, the window settings, and the screen-size. We are therefore talking about navigation and hiding.
Everything you may want can be implemented by user code without annoying other users (like myself) wanting it as it currently is. If I find the time I will give an example.
Found the time. See attachment to my edited answer.
Instead opening the file, link to it with a matrix formula with the size you like, so you don’t touch the original file and you have the data you want to.