Tickets can be cheaper. They do, however, have expiration dates (very close to the run time, not far in the future) and they canNOT be upgraded at all once you get them.
I ran the TOT last year and booked the room through rundisney. I already had an AP, but the way rundisney does rooms is that they are packages. In our case, the tickets were minigolf tickets, so they are flexible, but it's done with package rules (full payment 45 days out, etc).