Context
I have been using EPPLUS as my tool to automate excel report generation, using C# as the client language of the library.
Pro
As I've encountered this too, and found no real solution, I've had to come up with the solution by myself. It comes as a new library: https://github.com/danielgindi/SpreadsheetStreams.net
This is based on taking a very old piece of code of mine, that supported csv and xml, refactor the interface, add xlsx support, and publish as a standalone library.
This is not a replacement for EPPlus or other spreadsheet manipulation libraries, this one is just about streaming generation of reports. Not all excel features are there also.