Sylar wasn't trying to die. He thought he would be able to stop Peter and make himself the hero. It wasn't until after he was stabbed that he was happy to let Peter blow up.
"My thoughts on the plaza being empty are that it was really late at night. Probably no one around for the short time they were there since everyone else was at home sleeping."
This is New York. "I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps". Watch it again. The plaza where the fight happens is empty. The street where Claire falls out is empty. The street Peter passes out on is empty.
No people. At all.
"Mr. Bennett's first name (He's gathering all the Heroes together I guess and protecting them). Yeah, it's only two references, but they're two big references."
That's an awesome catch! I hadn't even considered that.
" I found it very funny that Niki, who should have no idea what's going on due to the fact that she's never met Sylar or Peter, grabs a traffic meter and beats the hell out of Sylar just for no reason."
Like most other things happening in that episode, stuff is happening for no reason, or for no good reason. This is a dramatic change of course in writing.