Not only that, but you can actually grab Wheatley in certain chamber also.
He also appears behind a panel next to the victory lift in chamber 07, right after the second WCC gets fizzled.
We know, thats where you can grab him. He appears multiple times through that part of the game.
I've just bought the game for someone some days ago who never played any Portal before. Then I watched him playing the game (he is not through it yet). He noticed some of the points that you call "eastereggs" on his very first look. Non-hidden eastereggs are no eastereggs!
Well, to be fair, Wheatley appears only once in the room and it's kinda hard to notice him on the first time through.