quick question are regions the same thing as points?

Yes and no.
While they obviously differ, you can do the exact same things with both of them, because the trigger editor supports stuff like "center of region" (returning a point) and "sqaure/circle at point", which allows you to create a map without any point OR without any region.

Still, using both obviously is easier. Points are very often used for Create units or similiar, while regions are used in loops (pick each unit in regions) or conditions (unit is in region == true) and the like.