Creating an autolayout-based metrics view

I have a reusable view I will be using in UITableViewCell's and UICollectionViewCell's, and need to get its dimensions for tableView:heightForRowAtIndexPath:. Some subviews have stuff going on inside layoutSubviews so I can't call systemLayoutForContentSize:, instead my plan is to:

1. Instantiate the metrics view.
2. Set the size to include the desired width.
3. Populate it with data.
4. Update constraints / Layout subviews.
5. Grab the height of the view or an internal "sizing" view.

The problem I'm running into is that I cannot force the view to layout without inserting it into the view and waiting for the runloop.

I've distilled a rather boring example. Here's View.xib. The subview is misaligned to highlight that the view is never getting laid out even to the baseline position:

On the main thread I call:

UIView *view = [[UINib nibWithNibName:@"View" bundle:nil] instantiateWithOwner:nil options:nil][0];

NSLog(@"Subviews: %@", view.subviews);
view.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 200, 200);

[view updateConstraints];
[view layoutSubviews];
NSLog(@"Subviews: %@", view.subviews);

[self.view addSubview:view];
[view updateConstraints];
[view layoutSubviews];
NSLog(@"Subviews: %@", view.subviews);

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
    NSLog(@"Subviews: %@", view.subviews);
});

I get out the following view information:

1) "<UIView: 0x8bad9e0; frame = (50 50; 220 468); autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x8be0070>>"
2) "<UIView: 0x8bad9e0; frame = (50 50; 220 468); autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x8be0070>>"
3) "<UIView: 0x8bad9e0; frame = (50 50; 220 468); autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x8be0070>>"
4) "<UIView: 0x8bad9e0; frame = (0 100; 100 100); autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x8be0070>>"

1 indicates that the fresh-out-of-the-NIB view hasn't been laid out. 2 indicates that updateConstraints/layoutSubviews did nothing. 3 indicates that adding it to the view hierarchy did nothing. 4 finally indicates that adding to the view hierarchy and one pass through the main-loop laid out the view.

I would like to get to the point where I can get the view's dimensions without having to let the application handle it or perform manual calculations (string height + constraint1 + constraint2) on my own.

Update

I've observed that if I place view inside a UIWindow I get a slight improvement:

UIView *view = [[UINib nibWithNibName:@"View" bundle:nil] instantiateWithOwner:nil options:nil][0];
UIWindow *window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 200, 200)];
view.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 200, 200);
[window addSubview:view];
[view layoutSubviews];

If view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints == YES, the view's immediate subviews will be laid out, but none of their children.