Hello, I am a PowerPoint specialist; both back end and front end. I almost exclusively only bid for PowerPoint work so all my jobs involve creating PowerPoint templates, Presentation, enhancing a tired deck, or creating a new one from scratch.
As you know, a carefully designed Master Slide Deck will give you long term benefits, with a choice of layouts fully branded with your design/scheme for use in the future. You will have a Cover, title, section and thank you slide in addition to 25+ fully branded layouts for you to choose from.
I have been working with PowerPoint since 1999 and have solved all the mysteries of the Master Slide Deck (aka Template). My deliverables are very robust. All static elements will be embedded. No jumping around of title blocks, footers or page numbers etc. Fonts for titles, captions, body will be set. Your logo or icon/word mark will be inserted on each page where appropriate. Your primary and secondary colors will be set into the Theme … whenever you insert a table, chart or SmartArt it will automatically appear in your primary color - a quick click on the color wheel will let you choose your secondary colors, or various tones of your prime color, and embellishments (3D, bevels, and rotation of certain images). Robust. Saved as a Template, you will be able to 'pin' it to the front page of layouts when you open a new (empty) PowerPoint. My MSD default to clean and crisp (very 2016!) but I can adopt whatever aesthetic you wish.