pokecrystal-speedchoice VS PokemonGameEditor

you actually don't need to build it yourself! there is a release page with the most up-to-date version as an ips patch file.

that would be the speedchoice rom! download the ips patch file from this page, and use the program lunar ips to patch it to a clean unmodified crystal rom.

this would be super easy to do, even if you don't want to get into the newer more complicated stuff like decomp, there are plenty of older tools out there like Pokémon Game Editor and Gen III Rom Hacking Suite that would work just fine if all you're doing is changing names of Pokémon, moves, items, trainers, etc.

Download Page Link: https://github.com/Gamer2020/PokemonGameEditor/releases

editing pokemon data should also be fairly simple depending on what you want to do. for this i recommend pokemon game editor. it has a variety of functions, but you can load your rom and pick the pokemon editor. pick the species you want to edit in the top-left. the species' catch rate is in the base stats tab, next to its other stats like HP and attack and so on. you didn't mention wanting to change evolutions, but that should also be really easy, and it's a popular edit in case you want to get ride of trade evolutions. just go to the evolution data tab and change "condition" from "trade" to something else like "level".