using an agent is fine, the questionable part is the advice to enter Thailand as a tourist. A few years ago is was easy for a tourist to open a Thai bank account but recently there's been a lot of commotion about that being disallowed now.
maybe, but people who opened bank accounts as a tourist might not be considered to be among the "good guys" and the strategy recommended above reqiures that be done.
Thailand can be a good place for people with no marketable skills to subsist if they are young, single, and have few material needs but the calculus changes when there's a family to support.