Child Themes Questions and Price Banner

So far when I’ve used child themes, they’ve been ones I’ve set up myself and I just check the 2nd and 3rd boxes when I create (ie. don’t check Include my custom settings (functions.php)) and I end up with a child theme I can activate and deactivate without affecting my theme settings – exactly how I want it to be.
I know from reading the forums people have experienced some problems in the past using PP child themes when wanting to deactivate or when upgrading the theme- I assume these child themes do more than just alter the look of the site.

My questions are geared towards RT but are general questions also:
1. Which PP child themes are suitable for current version of RT?
2. Can you activate and deactivate any of them without affecting settings and the way the theme will function. ie. can I use them as a basis for a child theme as described above? Or do I need to continue to set up my own child theme if I want it to work as above?
3. In RT is it possible to put the For Sale / For Rent (with price) banner on listings as on older versions?

Guess I’m really wanting to know whether to keep doing my own child themes or whether to use PP ones as a starting point.

Mark, if you see this would be very grateful if you could clarify these points.