So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
Genesis 32:30 (NKJV)
I do not believe that the angel with whom Jacob wrestles represents a theophany (pre-incarnate Jesus), or that the writers/editors were trying to get the readers to understand that God personally came down and wrestled with Jacob.
There is a deeper story here, and it has to do with the relationship between the brothers. Look closely at what Jacob says to Esau. This is written VERY intentionally.
And Jacob said, “No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand, inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me.
Genesis 33:10 (NKJV)
And then remember that Jacob and Esau are twins.
There’s a saying among the rabbis: Torah is not man’s book about God. It is God’s book about man.
I think we often get hung up looking for the ways God reveals himself to us in the text (maybe this is God! maybe that is God!), but perhaps the text is laying bare our own wrestlings and fears and assumptions about God, and about what it means to be a righteous person.