It's not even that alien to the Whoniverse. The Torchwood episode "Small Worlds" had much the same feel to it.
"Your species has the most amazing capacity for self-deception, matched only by its ingenuity when trying to destroy itself."
—The Doctor, Remembrance of the Daleks
Maybe it's the early stage of the Forest of Cheem.
The episode itself explained where all the people were: the Doctor explains they have a deep-seated, instinctual fear of the forest, so they all kept out of it if they didn't have a good reason.
At a beginning? Half of Philip K. Dick's books revolved around this sort of thing, and he's been dead for thirty-two years.
"the shadowy government organization designed to solve the forest problem is called Cobra, eh?"
When the wolves first appeared, I was like, "Wait, why are there wolves? Shouldn't there be a tiger?"
The Island is criss-crossed with channels of water from the Source. At the beginning of season six, when they revive Sayid, they make a point of mentioning the quality of the water. When the water is "infected" by Smokey, who's tied to the Source, it "changes" people like Sayid and Montand.
Fair enough.
It's even funnier at the end of season three, when Locke asks, "Are you taking me to the magic box?"
That's basically Lost in a nutshell.
The problem with saying "Fuck Henry Gale" is that, obviously now we know he's Ben, but at the time of his first episode it was completely possible he was just some guy who crashed on the Island.
They did show the Smoke Monster as being able to take human form in "The Cost of Living".
That was kind of the point of season two. It was all about testing the character development the characters received in season one, and seeing what happens to them when they relapse into their darkest impulses. And in most cases, it isn't pretty.
The OP asked how people saw it playing out. That's just my interpretation of the narrative's momentum. It's all speculation.
I wouldn't say it's a religious show, per se. The religion, as presented, works more on the level of mythic archetypes than as actual religion religion.
Mostly this comes from narrative inertia. The producers stated they had a five-season plan for Eko, so we look at the show and go, "Oh, if Eko was the one receiving the visions that would track much better with his interaction with Charlie in season two." Not only was the show itself a giant jigsaw puzzle, so is…
During a rewatch, it is absolutely fascinating to track how Locke has a completely different intonation every time he says "Boone was a sacrifice the Island demanded," dictated by how much he feels like his chain is being yanked.
It's an interesting theory, certainly.