Nice find!
Weird, that version takes us back to the semi-silent failure I was getting originally:
$ tce-load -wi icu65
$ wget http://tinycorelinux.net/5.x/x86_64/tcz/vte.tcz
$ tce-load -i ./vte.tcz
$ ls /usr/local/lib | grep vte
libvte2_90.so
libvte2_90.so.9
libvte2_90.so.9.3400.9
vte-2.90/
$ /usr/local/bin/geany -v --vte-lib /usr/local/lib/libvte2_90.so.9.3400.9
Geany-INFO: 23:16:28.222: Geany 1.24.1, en_US.UTF-8
Geany-INFO: 23:16:28.222: GTK 3.24.13, GLib 2.64.0
...
Geany-INFO: 23:16:28.601: Could not load libvte.so, embedded terminal support disabled
...
This approach does not seem promising.
Remember that when I compile latest geany on TC11 x86_64 with vte-dev.tcz installed, the virtual terminal works fine. Maybe it would be easier to troubleshoot why the "Open File" box shows directories but no files when I compile?
I'll keep hammering at this tomorrow. Time for bed.