Yup, you totally can decorate in old games- at least by gen 2 dolls, posters and furniture could be unlocked for your room. 😃
Also true, I gambled to get coins I could redeem for pokemon and tms at the prize corner. When I had extra money to buy all the coins required for the prize, then I would do that instead, since it can take a lot of time to accumulate the coins via slot machines and voltorb flip, but had no problem playing the minigames to earn the coins instead when I was short on cash.
Tpbm tries to have a balanced team of diverse pokemon that cover each other's weaknesses.