I don't actually think he turned himself into a brother-killing bomb, I think at some point he realises he could be one. (There's to me a fairly important process and intent distinction.)
Huh, this is interesting! I'll have to ruminate on my views on this. (I think he did intentionally encourage the bomb-ness at some point, but idk how much of that is actually canon-based.)

The stuff I feel relatively sure about (I know views differ, but this is how it reads to me) is that the backlash from the sundial exchange took him by surprise, he hadn't expected he'd get damaged. But he still doesn't think he's in mortal peril/has no options. (The dinner scene right after Zhao Yunlan's eyes are fixed doesn't make sense to me, mood-wise, if he just learned he's definitely going to die and - important - be separated from Zhao Yunlan.) But he realises something isn't right, and tries to fix himself. Around this ep here, he's realising the fixing is a little tricky, but he can get through it. There are a couple of other instances in the upcoming eps where he runs into the way he's damaged himself, and those still take him by surprise.
Nodnod. I agree with you here, and like you, am a bit fuzzy on the canon details later on. I'll pay attention to this once the rewatch rolls along to the appropriate episodes.

OMGWTFBBQ
This is a very apt description of the final run! :D

Shen Wei is so powerful that Ye Zun getting all of his powers by itself would be scary.
I'm actually not sure that Ye Zun would get all Shen Wei's powers instead of just the power of learning that allowed Shen Wei to get all those powers! Then again, it's not like we got to see the results in canon.