Ok, fired it up with the complete rewiring. At least there's only 3 wires in the headlight now!
I removed the foot pegs so not to damage the rubber while checking the sound of the straight pipes.
But, I really prefer the sound of the CB pipes with the packing removed.
So I've decided to keep the pipes as is, and rework the footpeg mounts around that.
And as for a brake switch, I want to trip the light by the digital speedo I'm building. That way there won't be any exposed wires or switches. However, that needs to be OK'd by the DOT inspector. It's unusual enough to throw up a red flag.