Many word problems are not practical and most students won't find themselves needing to find the height and length of a rectangle with only its area. However, I think a reason for the seemingly irrelevant word problems is to get students to think about the problems at all. When students are given models of what types of questions are possible (and many not very possible in their life), they may go out into the world and find similar problems. Students hopefully become more inquisitive about the world around them as they are work on finding the height of a building with the length of the shadow.
While the numbers and dimensions could be blown out of proportion, the basic math concepts used in many word problems can be applied to other problems. If not all, some of the methods used in one problem can be used in another. When students see the same type of word problem with small numbers, the big numbers, they might create a generality between them. In Babylonian times, some of the word problems were found to be relatable to the working life of a Babylonian scribe.
Shifting numbers and equations out of abstraction can help students understand the use of math and think about their answers. I often ask my students if the answer makes sense logically. If they find that the height of the bear is 20 m, does that make sense- or is it 2 m?
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