Were Catholics wise to not let people interpret the bible for themselves for so long?

They probably were. Catholicism really got into trouble when it started to forget about the whole separation of earthly realms from the realm of heaven. Once it really started to get sucked into politics, it was largely inevitable that the corruption and power would lead to Christians breaking away from the Church to return to their version of the "true" faith. Thus, we end up in today's situation, where anyone can make the bible say essentially anything they like.