I broke down and compiled WINE 0.9.43 and installed it from the source package obtained from the WINE download repository. Same results as installing WINE from the pre-compiled Vector Linux package. When I tried to install the Windows apps I customarily run with WINE 0.9.40 I received the following feedback:
wine: Unhandled page fault on read access to 0x00000000 at address (nil) (thread 0046), starting debugger...
Unhandled exception: page fault on read access to 0x00000000 in 32-bit code (0x00000000).
Register dump:
CS:0073 SS:007b DS:007b ES:007b FS:0033 GS:003b
EIP:00000000 ESP:7e674d2c EBP:7e674d58 EFLAGS:00010202( - 00 - -RI1)
EAX:00000000 EBX:7ed41dbc ECX:00000000 EDX:7e6760c0
ESI:000a0034 EDI:00000024
Stack dump:
0x7e674d2c: 7ed1cf4a 000a0034 00000024 00000000
0x7e674d3c: 7e6760c0 00000002 7ed41dbc 7e674d58
0x7e674d4c: 7ed41dbc 000a0034 00000024 7e674d98
0x7e674d5c: 7ed1d305 00000000 000a0034 00000024
0x7e674d6c: 00000000 7e6760c0 7efe4b34 7e674db8
0x7e674d7c: 7ed41dbc 00000000 00000000 7e674d98
Backtrace:
=>1 0x00000000 (0x7e674d58)
2 0x7ed1d305 WINPROC_wrapper+0x3d5() in user32 (0x7e674d98)
3 0x7ed1f932 in user32 (+0xaf932) (0x7e675eb8)
4 0x7ed22b06 WINPROC_call_window+0x166() in user32 (0x7e675ef8)
5 0x7ece9026 in user32 (+0x79026) (0x7e675f78)
6 0x7ecebf67 in user32 (+0x7bf67) (0x7e675fd8)
7 0x7ecec44c SendMessageW+0x4c() in user32 (0x7e676038)
8 0x7ed19e2c WINPOS_GetMinMaxInfo+0x1fc() in user32 (0x7e676108)
9 0x7eac8ccd X11DRV_CreateWindow+0x20d() in winex11 (0x7e6762a8)
10 0x7ed1521c in user32 (+0xa521c) (0x7e6764e8)
11 0x7ed16c7d CreateWindowEx16+0x11d() in user32 (0x7e676678)
12 0x7ec85d0a in user32 (+0x15d0a) (0x7e6766b8)
13 0x7eeb1217 in kernel32 (+0x81217) (0x7e6766e8)
14 0x11ef:0x1741 (0x1207:0x615a)
15 0x11ef:0x8c9f (0x1207:0x618c)
16 0x11ff:0x2542 (0x1207:0x61c2)
17 0x11ff:0x059d (0x1207:0x632c)
18 0x11ef:0x2e39 (0x1207:0x6344)
19 0x11f7:0x00fb (0x1207:0x6356)
20 0x11f7:0x00c8 (0x1207:0x0000)
0x00000000: addb %al,0x0(%eax)
Modules:
Module Address Debug info Name (81 modules)
ELF 7bf00000-7bf03000 Deferred <wine-loader>
ELF 7dfcb000-7dff9000 Deferred libcrypt.so.1
ELF 7dff9000-7e044000 Deferred libgcrypt.so.11
ELF 7e044000-7e054000 Deferred libtasn1.so.2
ELF 7e054000-7e0bb000 Deferred libgnutls.so.11
ELF 7e0bb000-7e0e3000 Deferred libcups.so.2
ELF 7e107000-7e11b000 Deferred libresolv.so.2
ELF 7e12c000-7e14a000 Deferred iphlpapi<elf>
\-PE 7e130000-7e14a000 \ iphlpapi
ELF 7e14a000-7e1a4000 Deferred rpcrt4<elf>
\-PE 7e160000-7e1a4000 \ rpcrt4
ELF 7e1a4000-7e243000 Deferred ole32<elf>
\-PE 7e1b0000-7e243000 \ ole32
ELF 7e243000-7e275000 Deferred uxtheme<elf>
\-PE 7e250000-7e275000 \ uxtheme
ELF 7e275000-7e2a9000 Deferred winspool<elf>
\-PE 7e280000-7e2a9000 \ winspool
ELF 7e2a9000-7e36a000 Deferred comctl32<elf>
\-PE 7e2b0000-7e36a000 \ comctl32
ELF 7e36a000-7e3c3000 Deferred shlwapi<elf>
\-PE 7e380000-7e3c3000 \ shlwapi
ELF 7e3c3000-7e4c7000 Deferred shell32<elf>
\-PE 7e3d0000-7e4c7000 \ shell32
ELF 7e4c7000-7e568000 Deferred comdlg32<elf>
\-PE 7e4d0000-7e568000 \ comdlg32
ELF 7e678000-7e68d000 Deferred midimap<elf>
\-PE 7e680000-7e68d000 \ midimap
ELF 7e68d000-7e6b4000 Deferred msacm32<elf>
\-PE 7e690000-7e6b4000 \ msacm32
ELF 7e6b4000-7e6cc000 Deferred msacm32<elf>
\-PE 7e6c0000-7e6cc000 \ msacm32
ELF 7e6cc000-7e78c000 Deferred libasound.so.2
ELF 7e78c000-7e7bf000 Deferred winealsa<elf>
\-PE 7e7a0000-7e7bf000 \ winealsa
ELF 7e7bf000-7e84d000 Deferred winmm<elf>
\-PE 7e7d0000-7e84d000 \ winmm
ELF 7e84d000-7e8ac000 Deferred winedos<elf>
\-PE 7e860000-7e8ac000 \ winedos
ELF 7e8ac000-7e8c9000 Deferred imm32<elf>
\-PE 7e8b0000-7e8c9000 \ imm32
ELF 7e8c9000-7e8e7000 Deferred ximcp.so.2
ELF 7e8e7000-7e8ea000 Deferred libxinerama.so.1
ELF 7e8ed000-7e8f2000 Deferred libxfixes.so.3
ELF 7e8f2000-7e8fb000 Deferred libxcursor.so.1
ELF 7e8fb000-7e962000 Deferred libgl.so.1
ELF 7e96f000-7e973000 Deferred libgpg-error.so.0
ELF 7e973000-7ea40000 Deferred libx11.so.6
ELF 7ea40000-7ea4e000 Deferred libxext.so.6
ELF 7ea4e000-7ea66000 Deferred libice.so.6
ELF 7ea66000-7ea6f000 Deferred libsm.so.6
ELF 7ea6f000-7eb00000 Export winex11<elf>
\-PE 7ea80000-7eb00000 \ winex11
ELF 7eb00000-7eb12000 Deferred libz.so.1
ELF 7eb12000-7eb7c000 Deferred libfreetype.so.6
ELF 7eb7c000-7ebc2000 Deferred advapi32<elf>
\-PE 7eb90000-7ebc2000 \ advapi32
ELF 7ebc2000-7ec5a000 Deferred gdi32<elf>
\-PE 7ebd0000-7ec5a000 \ gdi32
ELF 7ec5a000-7ed97000 Export user32<elf>
\-PE 7ec70000-7ed97000 \ user32
ELF 7ed97000-7edac000 Deferred winevdm<elf>
\-PE 7eda0000-7edac000 \ winevdm
ELF 7edac000-7edb7000 Deferred libnss_files.so.2
ELF 7edb7000-7edc1000 Deferred libnss_nis.so.2
ELF 7edc1000-7edd7000 Deferred libnsl.so.1
ELF 7edd7000-7eddb000 Deferred iso8859-1.so
ELF 7eddb000-7eddf000 Deferred libxrandr.so.2
ELF 7eddf000-7ede8000 Deferred libxrender.so.1
ELF 7ee14000-7ef3a000 Export kernel32<elf>
\-PE 7ee30000-7ef3a000 \ kernel32
ELF 7ef3a000-7ef5d000 Deferred libm.so.6
ELF 7ef5d000-7f000000 Deferred ntdll<elf>
\-PE 7ef70000-7f000000 \ ntdll
ELF b7c90000-b7c93000 Deferred xlcdef.so.2
ELF b7c93000-b7c9d000 Deferred libnss_compat.so.2
ELF b7c9e000-b7ca2000 Deferred libdl.so.2
ELF b7ca2000-b7dd1000 Deferred libc.so.6
ELF b7dd1000-b7de3000 Deferred libpthread.so.0
ELF b7de6000-b7deb000 Deferred libxxf86vm.so.1
ELF b7df5000-b7f09000 Deferred libwine.so.1
ELF b7f09000-b7f21000 Deferred ld-linux.so.2
Threads:
process tid prio (all id:s are in hex)
00000044 (D) c:\windows\system32\winevdm.exe
00000046 0 <==
00000045 0
00000010
00000012 0
00000011 0
0000000a
0000000b 0
Look familiar?
I did some digging around at the WINE HQ web site and it is stated in WINE documentation that WINE can function with or without certain dependencies being satisfied but the usefulness of WINE will be adversely affected.
Having said that, I do not know what could be missing from the stock install of VL 5.8 Standard Gold that would knock the legs out from under this particular release of WINE but allow previous releases to function adequately in the same environment.
I am not quite savvy enough to know whether that is the issue or if it's something entirely unrelated that might have a work around. It would be nice if someone with that kind of know how would take a look at this thread, otherwise I am going to have to back pedal to a downgrade on my box as well.

I wonder if this version works on SOHO or one of the development releases?