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I agree on the full basement, and I'm sure it's done as you describe as what sounds like one pour, but how are the walls formed and not leak out the bottom ? Concrete usually requires, forming, placing and finishing, not to mention reinforcing, many things are designed, that are difficult or impossible to construct, something to keep in mind, but not to steer you away from it, it sounds different and a full basement is always a benefit. Not being familiar with the conditions in your area, obviously, soil type, elevation of water, frost depth etc, play a key role in how you should construct a particular foundation. Underneath should be well compacted if not on top of undisturbed, well drained, and not attracting water say like if you excavated and filled with clean crushed stone, which is porous and would allow water to be trapped. Foundation drain pipe, usually a bed of crushed stone, perforated pipe, on both sides of the footing, working on the priciple of gravity to drain away is commonly designed. If you plan to build up an area for a slab, you must excavate to good undisturbed, hopefully dry, and build up with a good material with many composite sizes in a sieve analysis, sand is fine aggregate, no stability, will not compact well especially dry, it needs to have moisture, and many different sieve size aggregates, like a good run of bank bony gravel, or screened gravel, or crusher run stone with the dust in it. You can build up your subgrade with this material, compacting with a vibratory roller in 1'-0" lifts until you get to subgrade. Best to avoid cold weather pours, below freezing and you don't want to pour on top of frost, frozen ground. Cold weather pours are done all the time, just a preference I have to avoid it, Remember, concrete takes 28 days to reach full compressive strength, so waterproofing the exterior side and backfilling is usually contingent on that.
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