Hi Thomas,
it is more or less the other way round :)
When you use option --add-pois-to-area then mkgmap creates a point for each OSM object that describes an area.
You decide what to do with this artifical point in style file points.
The default style contains e.g.
highway=services & mkgmap:area2poi!=true [0x210f resolution 24 default_name 'Services']
OK?