Tub - Replacing a pop up drain with a 'regular' tub drain. do I need to open up wall

[personalt]

I have a 3 year old bathroom remodel were my wife decided we wanted to use a moen pop up drain. It doesnt maintain the water level and my son thinks it is fun to pull the drain up in the middle of his bath.

My choices are replace the pop up drain - do any of them work well - or convert to a regular trip level drain with a stopper.

If I were to convert it to a regular tub drain with a lever and a stopper do I need a different rough in kit (meaning do I need to open up the wall)?

I assume the T is machined for the stopper on the stopper version?

I do have weird feeling though I bought a stock brass stopped based kit and tossed the trip and stopper when I bought a brushed nickel pop up drain. Question is, can I tell that without cutting holes in the wall

 

[IFIXH20]

Remove the overflow face plate, shine a light in overflow to see if there is a glue joint just below the opening, if so , the waste & overflow is piped with 1 1/2'' PVC and you can not use a linkage style stopper. If it's a tubular waste & overflow you should be able to find a linkage stopper that will work . If you want a screen cover over the drain you will have to replace the strainer. The rubber gasket on your stopper may be bad, have you tried replacing the stopper itself ?