My first job was in a print shop in Lisbon, setting tickets, menus and the occasional wedding invitation by hand. There was no software to hide behind, only a chase, a box of type and a deadline.
The grid is the paper
A sheet has edges before it has columns. The best layouts in that shop started from the margins, not from the middle, and every grid I draw now still begins with the paper it will be printed on.
On a screen the paper is the window. We set the margins first, then let the columns follow, and the page feels held rather than filled.