A couple more random thoughts I had.
One was that there were indeed attempts to suppress the use and ownership of vernacular translations, especially in England immediately before the Reformation took place there. This was not because vernacular Bible-reading was viewed as evil per se, but because it was viewed as a sign that the reader held Protestant sympathies. (And, as you point out, some of the vernacular translations contained tendentious notes and put a doctrinal slant on the translation.)
Second, people forget that the Latin Vulgate was a "vernacular Bible translation" when St. Jerome made it. (That's where "Vulgate" comes from ... the "vulgar" tongue of the people was Latin at the time.)
Finally, it should be remembered that there were ways to teach people lessons from the Bible that didn't involve passing out Bibles and reading them. It was common in medieval Europe to stage plays dramatizing episodes from Scripture that had didactic value. Even the illiterate could learn from those. (The "Passion Plays" of, e.g., Oberammergau are a surviving vestige of this practice, but the dramatizations weren't limited to the Passion by any means.)
Also, hence, the stained glass windows, statues, and other medieval artwork; the Stations of the Cross, and so forth. Unfortunately, as the Reformers pointed out, these things did come to be abused - but that does not discredit their legitimate uses (and so did not justify the wanton destruction the Reformers levied upon Catholic churches).