to me it feels there are many un-necessary bureaucracies in Poland.
Sure there are, however I think in case of personal identification documents, authorities should be careful, sending it via mail or something wouldn't be a good idea...
My wife-to-be will be moving to England next year to live with me.
So she will move to the UK and get married there ? I'm sure that a new passport can be delivered through the consulate... there might be some issues with producing a Polish marriage certificate (which I believe will be needed) but it probably also can be done without visiting Poland... ID card ? Never heard about it being issued abroad... when I was getting a new one 2 years ago, I had to visit a city hall, sign the papers and visit again 2 or 3 weeks later to get the new card... however, If she's going to live outside of Poland, why would she really need it ? Generally, with 10 billion Poles living in the UK and elsewhere in the world, there must be thousands of similar cases each year... and I don't believe these people come back to Poland each time... she should figure out how it works, check the websites of the institutions... call them if needed etc.