Decocraft2 requires PTRLib and this has not been indicated properly inside the mod so Forge doesn't catch it with a Missing Mod screen.
I have been told that the next release of Decocraft2 will fix this issue, however.
A common theme I see among fans of old versions is the tendency to push that their favorite version is the "best" version and that their opinion is somehow factually proven, rather than their opinion.
I'm not sure I understand this issue in its entirety,
from the code I'm looking at 0b without quotes should get you 0 as a byte, yes this messes up syntax highlighting and Json verification as it's not 100% pure Json, but from what I'm seeing that should be what works.
Make sure your command to start the server includes the forge file's .jar extension, also you appear to be missing the -universal part of the filename if that was a direct copy-paste.
If the server is generating a debug.log please post that as described in my signature below.
If you are referring to the text box being blank, try a version after 14.23.4.2749
This sounds like trying to fix a symptom rather than the cause.
Can you provide logs from the server(and possibly client) that show this happening?
Please refer to my signature for which log and how to post.
If you have a 1.12.2 folder in your mods folder look in there, some mods extract a component into that folder and it runs on its own, which then crashes if it can't find the rest of the mod.