I would level out the ground under the decking and see how it looks before trying to get rid of any of it. Bear in mind if you want to change to slabs or paviors you will either need to drop the patio level to 15cm below the house floor level or install drains to take the rain water away from the house otherwise you'll create a damp risk.
You're going to need some hardcore to compact a decent base for a patio and some sand or cement to bed the slabs onto. You can make a patio out of anything really, old bricks, paviours, intact or broken slabs or even just gravel. See what you can get for free really and work from there. Sadly beggars can't be choosers and to do the job for free will require some patience and hard graft.
First step is get the decking removed and see what's underneath to work with.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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