How can you judge a bike when the wheels are so out of true that they scrape the brake pads? Yes, you can feel the weight in the steel wheels when you are accelerating but they can be quite functional. Speaking of brakes, the Mafacs on my UO-8 can stop a charging rhinoceros. Perhaps yours aren't adjusted properly. The ticking in the crank may be a poorly seated cotter pin. You can't tighten them by tightening the nut; the nut is there just to keep them from coming undone. Maybe the PO didn't seat one or both well. Unfortunately once one becomes loose it really needs to be replaced. It develops a ridge which prevents it from seating. You can try to file it down but getting the angle right is very hard, and it is easy to overdo the filing too.

Of course, "ready-to-ride" usually means more to a seller than it does to a buyer. None of the things you described sound like fatal flaws, merely small items which need correcting.