TBH, I would hire a pro to do the welding, on aluminum. Aluminum is VERY tricky to weld, and you need considerable experience with stick and wire feed welding of mild steel before you attempt to teach your self from books or vids how to weld aluminum! Also, aluminum is welded using an inert gas system that prevents burning and oxidation and helps to control the spread of heat. Aluminum conducts so quickly that the areas adjacent to the weld area get up to weld temperature and next thing you know, you got a big blowout burnt in your work. Even brazing aluminum has plenty of DOH! moments until you have considerable practice.
Adding a cabin to a pontoon boat is really only practical with a rather large one. They are not meant to carry a couple thousand pounds of superstructure. For day excursions in nice weather, they are a lot of fun, though, and yeah if the weight is reasonable, you have a lot of real estate for mounting solar panels. I have seen it done, yeah. Remember though that those panels have weight, and need a rigid and sturdy framework for mounting. And your battery bank... you can save a lot of weight with Lithium types, but at considerable financial cost. However you do get better lifespan and deeper discharge. If you go with flooded lead acid and you want reasonable power for all day use, even with solar (sun sometimes doesn't cooperate, and you won't get full effect from it except when the sun is high) you want a substantial bank, and 600 lbs is a good weight to budget for a FLA bank. So, the weight of 4 human passengers for batts and who knows for solar. It is all an exercise in compromise, and you can't have everything. You got to prioritize your priorities.
Paddlewheel might work well at low speeds. They lose efficiency quickly at higher speeds when you are just flinging water all over the place. They take up a lot of room, though, and I would lean toward a conventional prop, inboard or outboard. When you see everybody doing things one way, and hardly anybody doing it in a particular different way, there are usually reasons. So when you depart from the herd, you might discover something that nobody else has discovered, or more likely you might just be finding yet another way that doesn't work so good, probably that many others have already found doesn't work so good.
You don't need mechanical freewheeling. This can be done electrically if necessary.
Since this will be your first electric boat, I would stick with tried and true methods and configurations. Look at what is in common use and has satisfied the majority of users, and stick with that, is my suggestion. And learn to weld mild steel before trying aluminum or stainless or other metals.
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