Would prefer this to be the default setting for a spreadsheet, but failing that to be the default setting for a column.
Hello,
- Open a new Calc document
 - 
View -> Styles(orF11) - Click icon leftmost (beneath word Styles)
 Right click on Default (Cell Style) -> Modify - Tab: Alignment- Set option 
[x] Wrap text automatically - Click 
OK File -> Templates -> Save as Template...- Provide a Template Name (e.g 
MyCalCDefault) - Select a  Template Category (e.g 
My Templates) - 
Important: Set option 
[x] Set as default template - Click 
Save - Close the document (No further save required)
 - Open a new document an test you settings.
 
PS: Optimal row height should be the default
Hope that helps.
Perfect answer re: formatting the cells to wrap text.
But doesn’t address row height … which doesn’t seem to be optimizing by default.
Row height did automatically adapt to the text length in my test, but of course I did not know any settings of your previous default template and the method works for new files only.
/question/282179/ has no real answer, but it’s better to discuss the issue there. Has a bug report been filed?