Oklahoma doesn't allow dual agency, but would it benefit me in some way to reach out to the same brokerage that the listing agent works at in order to keep more money in that brokerage and thus attempt to obtain a larger amount?

Other options are to attempt to purchase far below retail. 

"I fairly, and in good faith offered to pay 2 months rent (over 50K) to a landlord for a place I was never going to step foot in due to a global pandemic that took a severe toll upon the residents of NYC, gave timely notice to attempt to try and re-rent, while getting TJ and now living in Florida for rehab, and the landlord tries to extort me for 250K while leaking this story to the media, and I'm the bad guy?

I can say I attempted the deal.

@Dexter Tiggs I would recommend starting with non-section 8 landlording before attempting.

There's no way I can know, but I've never as a renter needed to apply to more than three places, and never as a landlord been told by an applicant that I was his 21st attempt.

Just out of curiosity I wanted to know if anyone actually ventured off and attempted or did the assignment.

It just shifts debt from one to the other.Don't get too extreme in your attempts to save tax just to save tax. 

Litigation is a matter of last resort, but there has been no attempt to discuss the effects of these orders nor any attempt to open a dialogue with landlords.

A lot of hard money  lenders market terms in attempt to capture leads.