Is there a way I can customize my own summon dead thrall to where I can make it as an actual follower rather than a dead one? Or no?

It depends on how script intensive you want to get and what you want out of your summon. If I recall correctly, the default spell effect overrides a lot of the NPCs behavior and disables dialogue. If you decide to use a script effect over the reanimate spell effect, then you can practically make it do whatever you want.