I doubt that there's any other way to do it without writing a sort
subroutine.

If you don't want to see the helper column, you can always hide it.

If adding a len() function  to a column  is not "practical"
how can writing a full VBA sub be considered more "practical"?

If I WERE to suggest writing a sub... I'd suggest
storing the data in an array, sorting the array, then
write the array back to the cells...

Or, you could automate your original solution.
have the script write the len() function to the (B) column,
sort the data, delete the (B) column...