I also read (well, listened to) Villet recently, and had many of the same feelings!

I did not see the relationship between Lucy and M Paul coming when he was first introduced (though having read Jane Eyre before, I feel I should have. Charlotte Brontë certainly has a Type.)

I also somehow missed the subtle reference to the shipwreck (probably because I was listening to it at work.) Your post makes me want to go back and read it in paper format so I can hear Lucy's voice for myself rather than in the narrator's voice.