Plainview isn't a sociopath.

Plainview is a man who is torn between a need to connect with other human beings,
and his inability to do so. He can't relate to normal people, but sees his
salvation in family, and earning enough money to isolate himself from those he
hates. He's not a monster, but a broken man. Family and isolation are the key
themes of Plainviews character.

The tragedy of his character is that he himself is responsible for destroying the
few bonds that keep him tethered to sanity and happiness. He sends away his own
adopted son after not being able to cope with the isolating effects of deafness. He
kills the only man we see him trust and confide in (besides HW) from fear and
paranoia at being betrayed. He finally destroys the last remnants of his
relationship with HW in response to another perceived betrayal.

After Plainview kills the man he thought was his brother, we see him breakdown in
tears reading the diary of his dead brother, in mourning both over the brother he
never knew, and the one he did. This is not the behavior of a remorseless
sociopath.

Even the killing of Eli comes back to family and isolation. It is when Eli leans on
their new family ties in attempt to get money from him, and calls Daniel "brother"
that he snaps into murderous rage, and of course Plainviews homicidal resentment
towards Eli comes from Eli humiliating and exposing his abandonment of HW.

But all the while Plainview shows a capacity to love. He has a clear aversion to
hitting children, never hitting HW (which would be incredibly rare for the time),
and even stopping Abel Sunday from hitting Mary. When Daniel cuts ties with HW, we
see him yelling "BASTARD FROM A BASKET" even when deaf HW has left the room. It's
clear Daniel is saying this for his own benefit, lashing out in pain, trying to
deny he ever had any feelings for HW. In the very next scene we see a flashback to
Plainview playing and laughing with HW, one of the only times we see Plainview as
genuinely happy in the entire film, as he then walks off to the oil derrick that
will set into motion the tragic events of the film.

The derrick fire is not a metaphor for hell, but a metaphor for Plainviews self-
destructive nature. That which fuels him also consumes him, burns him up until
there is nothing left.

"I'm finished".