Does this view error mean CiviCRM has lost some MySQL DB perms?
You're on the right track--when you see a MySQL error and you can't see what's wrong with it, try it out manually.  It seemed like a permission problem on the face of it, and the error you got was a lack of permissions.
I think the wiki just threw you off with how it is written.  It does say,


  Also, to enable CiviCase you should set CREATE VIEW permission.


That's just in this aside just before the main list.

Now, if you don't use CiviCase, you still might try granting that permission and trying it out--I wouldn't put it past someone to change Civi without updating the wiki! Many of us would never notice--I typically give that permission to the DB user as part of a standard setup, and I bet many others do too.