⭐ Merited by JayJuanGee (1)
Each pool can check the hash and find out that the fake entry is invalid
Wonderful. Only pools can get to tell if an entry is fake or not. Completely decentralized and trustless, as envisioned. 
That's why the merkle tree exists
You can't fully validate a transaction with merely the merkle trees. Related: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/32533/134811Quoting a Satoshi post doesn't make it ideal. You need arguments, like these: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/37303/134811
"Decision making" is the mining nodes .
Every participant of the Bitcoin network contributes to decision-making processes. Some with authority (miners), others with technical competence (developers) and the rest of the users through running software, doing governance proposals, expressing their preferences and concerns, and of course being stakeholders.